


T-minus Seven /tiː ˈmʌɪnəs ˈsɛvən/

by Himmelreich



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Gen, One Shot Collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-07 01:57:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3156695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Himmelreich/pseuds/Himmelreich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How to better pass the time waiting for the new episodes than with some One-Shots? Characters and tags will be updated as the individual chapters are posted.</p><p><b>EDIT:</b> I ran out of character space here, so a detailed list of all the individual chapters can be found <a href="http://regnumcaelorum.tumblr.com/post/111991842078/t-minus-seven">here</a>.</p><p><b>Chapter Fifteen: Graveyard Orbit</b> | <i>"You really hold nothing back, do you, Kaizuka Inaho.“</i><br/><b>Chapter Fourteen: q. e. e.</b> | <i>That hopeless man would not recognise an invitation to a date if it came formally written on a card.</i><br/><b>Chapter Thirteen: tan (x)</b> | <i>Holding hands had never been something Inaho thought about a lot.</i><br/><b>Chapter Twelve: MWI</b> | <i>"I didn't expect to meet you here, Kaizuka Inaho."</i><br/><b>Chapter Eleven: O<sub>rd</sub></b> | <i>"Good work out there, Kaizuka-ototo!"</i><br/><b>Chapter Ten: 45 g</b> | <i>"It is the one proof I have that she was definitely here, on Earth, with us.“</i><br/><b>Chapter Nine: 4 + 2</b> | <i>"You do know I don‘t bite, Lieutenant Marito, don‘t you?“  </i><br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. P({x}) = 1 : 3

**Author's Note:**

> P({x}) = 1 : 3 : the chances of one particular result out of three possibililties occuring

Playing games with Inaho was no fun at all. It did not matter whether it was some sort of new video game or a traditional game of cards, he won with a frequency that was beyond frustrating for any opponent - and did so with a perfectly straight pokerface at that.  
„It‘s not that hard to win once you‘ve understood the basic rules and strategies of the game“, he would reply with the tiniest shrug when Calm loudly accused him of cheating, or: „In a lot of ways, this video game is quite similar to Kataphrakt combat simulations, so all you have to do is apply your learnings a little more creatively.“

Inko tried to console the sore losers time and time again by claiming that playing against Inaho was just one more way to build up frustration tolerance, even though she herself knew that she reacted just as badly when Inaho won five rounds of Pairs in succession against her again without looking even the slightest bit challenged. At some point, Okisuke suggested giving Inaho a handicap for some games, such as setting the difficulty level higher for his character only or handing him one card less at the start of the round, but even then it did not take longer than one attempt for Inaho to find some way around the new problem and win again.

Things got so bad that after a certain afternoon that ended with Calm flipping the Ludo board over after the third lost round, they agreed on playing without Inaho in the future. It was not the most noble thing to do, and Inko in her position as a student council member felt the need to point out the anti-social and uncooperative character of this action, but Inaho himself just said that he did not care much either way, and the matter was settled. He remained on the sidelines from then on, either doing whatever it was he was doing on his smartphone constantly (Okisuke insisted that by virtue of Inaho also being a teenage boy, there had to be at least one R-18 rated folder on there, while Calm just huffed and mused that the only classified material on that phone would probably the specs of the latest UFE Kataphrakt arsenal that Inaho somehow always seemed to get his hands on before most of their teachers did), or watching the games play out in front of him with full concentration. Occasionally he would peer over people‘s shoulders into their cards and sometimes even give advice, which without exception lead to success every time and was consequently always followed by complaints about the unfairness of using the Inaho-Joker by the losers.

With all that, it came as a surprise when one day at school, Calm approached the others with the most amazed facial expression and proclaimed that it had to be his lucky day seeing how he had just beaten Inaho at Jan Ken Pon three times out of three when settling the question who of them would be responsible for cleaning the classroom this week. The immediate response to this announcement was stunned silence, then Okisuke suggested that Inaho had probably lost on purpose to humour his friend, and while the two got in a heated argument over why altruism such as that would or would not befit Inaho‘s general character, Inko decided to instead confront the boy directly, who was indeed in the process of retrieving the cleaning utensils from the cupboard at the back of the room.

„Did you really just lose to Calm three times?“  
„Yeah. Why do you ask?“ Inaho looked at her from over his shoulder, as usual with a face void of any expression that might have gone to show he was angry or frustrated at the fact, and handed her the broom to hold like a duck takes to water while he went on searching for the dustpan.  
„I mean, were you actually trying to win?“ Inko pressed on, looking down at the broom in her hands perplexedly, wondering why exactly she had taken it with no questions asked in the first place.  
Inaho came up from the cupboard again and turned to her with the tiniest frown.  
„What kind of question is that?“  
„Well“, Inko began, feeling slightly guilty for her curiosity, „it‘s just so unusual for you to lose, let alone multiple times in a row.“  
Inaho‘s frown eased out as he raised his eyebrows in what was hard to distinguish between surprise and amusement.  
„I‘m not unbeatable, Inko.“  
With that, he gently pried the broom from her hands and headed over to the front end of the classroom, Inko following automatically.  
„Calm‘s superior strategic skills today threw me off, so I lost, simple as that.“

For a moment, Inko just watched Inaho work with the same air of routine and composure that he displayed in anything from cooking meals to firing live rounds in school practice, until she finally managed to lamely repeat: „Superior strategic skills?“  
As Inaho did not dignify that question with a reply, Inko cleared her throat and tried again.  
„It‘s a game based on luck, what strategy are you talking about?“  
Inaho stilled in his movements and gave her a short look that seemed almost offended, before carefully leaning the broom against the nearest desk to underline his following words by counting down on his fingers for emphasis.  
„The first round is largely based on coincidence, yes, leaving you with a chance of about 33 percent of winning, 33 percent of reaching an impasse, and 33 percent of losing. That is of course unless you know your opponent and the opening move they favour. In my experience, Calm usually goes for Rock, but he settled for Scissors this time, that‘s why I was at a disadvantage.“  
Inko tried to remember if there was any way to gently interrupt Inaho‘s impromptu stochastic lecture once he had begun, but it seemed her friend was in full swing now with no intentions of stopping halfway through. It was moments like these that something akin to passion actually shone through his usually stoic facade, even though in most instances, it was rewarded with confusion of the people around him who could not keep up with his mental gymnastics.

„Mathematically, the chances are the same for every following round of course, but you can usually plan your next move by predicting the most likely to follow strategy of your opponent based on simple psychology. Even though statistically speaking the distribution of chance should remain at 33 percent, someone repeating the exact same move in the next round is not as common in practice, and most likely they will assume likewise regarding your own moves, so you have to keep in mind what _they_ are thinking _you_ are thinking _they_ are thinking and choose your next move on that. Your aim is choosing what the other person does not expect you to pick, which usually gives you the advantage. In today‘s case, I assumed that Calm would assume I‘d predict his next move as-“  
„Inaho“, Inko finally chimed in, softly but firmly, „don‘t you think you _might_ be overthinking the whole thing?“  
„How can one overthink strategy?“ Inaho sounded genuinely perplexed at the general idea.  
„Well, the thing is, I don‘t think Calm employed any real strategy to speak of, he never does.“  
„Then how does he expect to win?“  
„Literally by chance, as most people would“, Inko explained patiently, swallowing the addition of „most _normal_ people“ in the last second.

Inaho just stared at her for a few heartbeats in obvious lack of comprehension, and then silently walked over to where Calm was sitting with the others over homework.  
„Calm, how did you choose which item to use in our game earlier?“  
„Choose?“ Calm asked, looking up from his notebook with a frown at Inaho‘s serious expression before giving a light shrug. „Nothing much to choose, I trust my gut feeling and roll with that, and today I was feeling pretty confident that it‘s my lucky day, too! Don‘t take it to heart, Inaho, who knows, maybe you‘ll win next time.“  
He grinned happily at that and gave Inaho a good natured pat on the arm, obviously completely oblivious to his friend‘s reaction.

Later, when they were sitting in the bus back home from school, Inko thought to herself that the expression Inaho‘s face that moment had probably been the closest to a sullen pout she had ever seen on her friend.


	2. Q

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _There is no thing such as cold per se - only an absence of heat. His father had once tried to teach this scientific truth to Slaine after he had complained about the chilly winter wind of their newest home area, and he had learned back then for the first time that sometimes even the most flawless logic still would not keep you warm when put to the test against reality._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Q : _the total amount of energy transferred as heat between two systems_

There is no thing such as cold per se - only an absence of heat. His father had once tried to teach this scientific truth to Slaine after he had complained about the chilly winter wind of their newest home area, and he had learned back then for the first time that sometimes even the most flawless logic still would not keep you warm when put to the test against reality.

***

Space, he later learns, is always cold, despite not possessing a temperature at all - an eternally windless, silent darkness, lacking in thermic warmth as much as it did in the human variant. Most of the people Slaine meets seem to have adapted to their new surroundings, shedding both all passion and compassion alike, even their rage and contempt directed towards him feels cold and disconnected, as if they were consciously trying to emulate the sterile vacuum around them in every possible aspect of their lives. 

Sometimes, the citizen of Vers make Slaine think of reptiles, poikilotherm, but then he remembers the Princess. Even though she had been born into this icy darkness, she is radiating a warmth that surpasses that of the artificial sunlight produced by the lamps in the palace by the thousands. And Slaine reminds himself that Aldnoah or no, the people on Vers are still humans like himself, warm blood running through their veins, whether they liked to show it or not.

***

Sir Trillram‘s blood is certainly as red and warm as Slaine‘s own, he realises with sudden terror the moment he shoots, and some part of his mind wonders if it would have been easier on him if there had been visible difference, a manifestation of the man‘s cruelty and betrayal in his very physiognomy, but that is not how the world works. 

It is winter in Japan now, he knows that for a fact, and the dry, cold fresh air feels both similar and entirely different to the recycled and sterilised simulacrum within in the Landing Castles. There are no seasonal changes in space, and the only way to keep track of the pass of time is by the meticulous keeping up with calendars. Even if it had only been a few years since his coming to Vers, Slaine realises he had almost forgotten how it felt - the slow transition from the biting cold of winter to the reluctant warmth of spring, the sudden appearance of the first days of summer heat, interrupted only by occasional thunderstorms bringing a pleasant cooling relief, and finally the crisp and chilly days of autumn. He had spent some time telling the Princess about the seasons on Earth and how he might or might not miss them, and yet, in this moment, the cold winter air in his lungs feels foreign and heavy, part of a different world and reality he had left behind.

His father had been very good at predicting snowfall from the air and clouds alone. All that Slaine can predict in this moment with absolute certainty is a meteor bombardment shower that would eradicate the area entirely, and that even if snow would come, all that would be left to cover would be ashes and rubble.

***

Novostalsk and its military base are covered by a thick layer of snow when Count Saazbaum‘s Landing Castle arrives to battle, a deceptively soft looking blanket of pure white hiding literal fangs and claws of steel beneath the surface. Slaine still holds on to the happy childhood memories he has for this element, connected to Christmas and New Year‘s holidays, drinking warm tea indoors while watching the constant falling of the snowflakes outside the window, the occasional snowball fights and building of snowmen with the short-time friends he had made or his father‘s more indulgent research partners and assistants. This, now, will play out completely different, and he knows it will not take more than an hour until the snow here would be dyed black and red with smoke and blood, the thick silence in the air already torn apart by the roaring of Aldnoah and gasoline engines alike. And he knows that he will not have any other choice than be part in it.

The ice-cold wind feels like whiplashes biting into the skin of his face, tearing at a uniform not build to withstand an element nonexistent in space. If his body had not already gone numb with pain and fear hours ago, Slaine knows he would probably worry about freezing to death in just the little time it takes to rush across the slippery wings of the Landing Castle to reach the inside. Where space is blackness surrounding you on all sides, on this Terran battlefield it is white and grey, sky and ground blending into each other seamlessly and snowflakes stirred by artillery fire a dizzying visual white noise. His fingers are stiff, but it does not matter, all they will have to accomplish is pulling the trigger once more, whoever he will have to direct his weapon at in the end. It would not matter as long as it guaranteed keeping the one existence safe that could even transform this ninth circle of hell into something wonderful and warm, ending the senseless bloodshed.

***

It has been over one and a half years, and space has become his home once more, and truly so for the first time. Regarding the overall environment, nothing much has changed, still the same filtered air, the same constant chilly temperature, the same dimly lit hallways, the same uniformity and resentment towards Terrans are surrounding him. And yet, he is no longer on the receiving end, but instead a part of it, a leading part even. There is respect and praise for him now, assistance and comfort when there had been nothing but insults and ignorance before, and the other soldiers would compliment his piloting skills in the same breath in which they would curse the Terrans of the UFE, and he finds himself not caring.

He no longer feels cold within these seemingly endless metallic halls. Maybe it is the light of Aldnoah within his body keeping him warm even now that his own personal sun had set and fallen into an indefinite sleep. Or, maybe it is just proof that eventually he, too, has adapted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week's episode _ruined_ me on so many levels, as did the OP and ED animations. We're in for a fun season, aren't we... Also, believe it or not, the initial inspiration for this piece was [this post](http://magicalshojo.tumblr.com/post/97988363623/slaine-bby-arent-u-cold-you-are-in-fucking) #новосталЬск (Special thanks to [my dear deer](http://archiveofourown.org/users/meguri_aite/pseuds/meguri_aite) who a) translated that name for me and b) does somehow not tire of explaining soft signs to me - спасибо!)


	3. λ = 575-595 nm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Are you really_ sure _you don‘t want to reconsider your choice?“_  
>  _"Asking me the same question ten times in one day won‘t change my answer, so, yes, I am in fact quite sure, Ma‘am.“_  
>  _Captain Magbaredge sighed in defeat, ignoring the definitely inappropriate tone of the reply from her subordinate, and leaned back against the railing of the platform overlooking the Kataphraktoi docks._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> λ = 575-595 nm : the spectrum of wavelengths visible to the human eye as the colour orange

„Are you really _sure_ you don‘t want to reconsider your choice?“  
„Asking me the same question ten times in one day won‘t change my answer, so, yes, I am in fact quite sure, Ma‘am.“  
Captain Magbaredge sighed in defeat, ignoring the definitely inappropriate tone of the reply from her subordinate, and leaned back against the railing of the platform overlooking the Kataphraktoi docks.  
„I understand you being used to this model is a source of comfort to you, but have you ever actually given the KG-7 a chance, Kaizuka Junior?“  
Inaho lifted his chin just a little to meet the good-natured gaze of his Captain evenly.  
„I don‘t have to, the specs alone tell me it would not be suited for my combat style. I value mobility and speed over heavier armour, Captain, be it on Earth or in the orbit.“  
„Well, if you prefer the older model so much, I won‘t stop you from using it, especially since your track record so far speaks for itself.“

„Thank you very much, Captain, both for granting my wishes and for stocking KG-6 Sleipnir models aboard the Deucalion in general.“  
Inaho gave a salute that should by all means still have looked comically out of place on a young boy such as him, but in between his standard soldier gear, serious facial expression, and the faintest pattern of scars surrounding his bionic left eye, it only evoked a feeling of mutual companionate respect in Magbaredge. This boy might still be young and lacking in experience, but she knew better than to mistrust his decisions and calls. If she had ever in her entire life met someone who had truly deserved the reputation of a godsend prodigy on the battlefield, it had to be Kaizuka Inaho.  
„To be perfectly honest, it was only half out of consideration of your wishes.“  
Magbaredge smiled at the small hints of surprise becoming visible on the boy‘s face. While he was far from cocky and drunken on his success, he still constantly radiated an air of matter of course when it came to his affairs and suggestions, as he hardly ever met with resistance. People arguing with his logic obviously was something rare and unusual to him. Somehow, it was comforting to know that this part of him had not changed at all, even after the incident of Novostalsk.  
„The simple truth is that we had to stock every Kataphrakt still available, and with our losses, we hardly are free to be picky about it being trainers or actual combat models anymore.“

There was a moment of silence between them as the deeper, ugly meaning behind this confession seemed to fill the room like an invisible weight.  
„I understand“, Inaho finally replied, and as if it had come as an afterthought, he added: „I shall be extra careful with the unit at hand, then.“  
„In consideration of your own health, I would recommend that to all pilots in general“ Magbaredge quipped, and Inaho rewarded her with the faintest trace of a smile.  
„Going back to this particular unit, though“, she picked up where she had left off, turning her had back to look at the mechanical suits forming a lifeless guard of honour on the deck below, her gaze automatically drawn to the Kataphrakt in question, „if you are already so adamant regarding the type, won‘t you at least reconsider the colour? It would be no problem to repaint it with Areion‘s colour palette, I‘m su-“

„Please allow me to keep the colour, Captain Magbaredge.“  
Upon turning back to face Inaho, Magbaredge found that an almost imperceptible change had come over him. While he constantly looked serious, there was sudden intensity to him now. Maybe it was the way he seemed to have straightened his back a bit more, or how his eyes had narrowed ever so slightly.  
„So you still insist on being everyone‘s mark even now, then?“ Magbaredge sighed again. „Using decoys to attract the enemy‘s attention is fine and all, but normally you do not pick the squad‘s single most talented tactician and pilot for that role.“  
If her casual praise got through to him or not was impossible to tell, as instead for the first time ever since she had met him, he avoided her eyes and instead looked down at his trademark Kataphrakt.  
„That‘s not the only reason for keeping it the way it is.“

Magbaredge waited for about half a minute, half anticipating Inaho to elaborate on his reasoning unprompted, half aware of the fact that he was not the needlessly talkative type unless the situation absolutely required it. In the end, her curiosity won.  
„Do you mind telling me what your other reason is, Ensign Kaizuka?“  
The boy turned his head to refocus his attention on her, a movement that was now always accompanied by the faintly audible sound of the mechanical pupil of his left eye adjusting to the new focal length. When he did not answer right away, still, she gave him another smile and started: „If you do not want to tell me, I won‘t force you, I was just wondering why-“  
„I was hoping“, Inaho interrupted her, halting in his words just as abruptly again, eyes shifting towards the docks again and his left hand coming up to almost touch his temple before limply dropping down to his side again.  
„I was thinking it might convey a message“, he corrected himself with a finality that seemed meant to prevent any further questions. Magbaredge contemplated him in silence for a few moments more, the visible scars, and those that remained unseen but certainly affected him more so than the loss of his eye ever could.  
„Well then, Young Kaizuka“, she announced instead of digging deeper, stepping away from the balcony at last, and headed towards the exit, stopping next to the boy for one last time, „I wish you good luck with your goal, whatever it may be.“  
„Thank you, Captain“, Inaho replied earnestly, and with one last smile directed at him, Magbaredge left to return to the bridge.

The echo of her steps had already all but died down, and Inaho was still standing on the platform, looking down at the unit now bearing the double Zero marking.  
„I‘m sure, if it‘s that person, he‘ll understand the message without fail.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Q_ was actually originally intended to be posted as an extra on occasion of Slaine‘s birthday, but last week university ate me alive. Anyway, consider this one belonging to episode 14. Inaho deciding on keeping orenji-iro no Sleipnir mainly in order to give Slaine a kick in the shin amuses me about as much as it saddens me. ~~Why can‘t you two just get along for heaven‘s sake~~


	4. The Copenhagen Interpretation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _And there, among shards of broken glass, an unsettling number of bullet casings, and quickly drying bloodstains, carelessly dropped between the intricate network of tubes and scaffolding on the ground, the soldiers found a single pendant._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Copenhagen Interpretation : the theory that we do not see quantum effects in the every day world because the act of observation changes our perception, fixing the many possibilities allowed by quantum mechanics as one, and as a result, when we look, we only see one version of events, with every object firmly anchored to one position at a time, as opposed to the possibility of the same object existing in two places at the same time

They found it by mere coincidence, really. Long after Yuki and Inko had rushed Inaho away from the battlefield and to the hospital wing, after the reinforcement squads had finally fought their way from the underground base to the Landing Castle, after all Martian soldiers aboard had been either killed or captured, the UFE had lost little time tearing apart the enemy ship from top to bottom, salvaging whatever weapons, technology and intel they could get their hands on. On Captain Magbaredge‘s orders, the Aldnoah Chamber was to be investigated with special care, as it had been the one place where the Princess had last been sighted. The UFE military saw itself confronted with an absence of bodies, and with the only surviving witness to the tragedy in an artificial coma and possibly facing irreparable brain damage should he ever wake up again, the little practical evidence in that room was their only way at guessing at just what had transpired on that snowy day of December. 

And there, among shards of broken glass, an unsettling number of bullet casings, and quickly drying bloodstains, carelessly dropped between the intricate network of tubes and scaffolding on the ground, the soldiers found a single pendant.

 

☩☩☩

 

For the first few hours, he was constantly aware of the lack of a very familiar weight around his neck. Ever since he had received it as the only personal heirloom at the deathbed of his father, he had been wearing it constantly, throughout all his training, hardships, and intergalactic travelling. It had been the only tangible memento left of the days past and his history with Earth, as the Troyards had escaped with barely anything more than the clothes on their backs and had lived on the borrowed kindness from the Vers Emperor ever since. In a way, it had been Slaine‘s only true possession that no-one had had the right to demand him returning, different from the new uniform he had been given and the technical equipment he had been supplied with. 

Therefore, it had also been the only thing he truly could hand over to the Princess as a gift, something that had almost been a part of him, to show her how much he cared for her, a small symbol of his everlasting devotion and gratitude. She had received it with the unabashed and genuine happiness that he loved so much about her, and seeing her carefully holding his late father‘s protection charm in her hands and swearing she would try her best at reconciling the old world and the new in his name, also, had silenced any second thought he could have had about losing the last memorabilia of his old home.

All he wished for was that the pendant‘s charm would truly work, what happened to him was of no consequence as long as the person in possession of the necklace would receive divine protection, at least.

 

☩☩☩

 

Inaho had woken up to a curious mixture of excruciating pain and numbness, and to an onslaught of questions as to what had happened by the military investigators until the doctors returned to his bed a second later to usher them out, claiming he needed rest and silence, before asking him just as many questions themselves. Could he see anything, could he hear and understand them, did he remember his name, could he tell them how old he was and what day it was according to his memory, could he maybe try moving his left arm, the words and their meaning washed over him like ripples on water. His sister was there at his bed, each and every time he regained consciousness, looking like she had not slept in days, eyelashes crusted over with salt and yet she was still crying, holding his hand, and for a while, that was enough.

It took him two more days of slipping in and out of consciousness until he was able to actually articulate his first words, a whisper only, not an answer, but instead a question, paraphrasing the most urgent thought occupying his clouded mind. It was met with silence, the people in the room looking to each other in search for the right reply, weighing honesty against the directive to shelter him as not to perturb his healing process, and that was all the answer he needed.

He spent more and more time awake, humouring the doctors asking him to do or say this or that, ordering his sister to go and get some rest before she would end up in the hospital bed beside him, and reporting whatever he knew to the military officials that came visiting ever so often. It was on the day one of them had asked Inaho whether he would want to take part in a biomechanics experiment in order to replace his left eye, to which Yuki as his legal guardian had to agree obviously none too happy, that his sister handed a small plastic evidence bag to him in a quiet moment after the other officer had left.

„They found it among the rubble, but for all it‘s worth, it‘s apparently just a piece of jewellery, so they have no use for it but storing it in the archives. I thought that maybe you want to keep it. Captain Magbaredge managed to get the top brass to agree, so if you want, it‘s yours now.“  
Inaho carefully removed the necklace from the bag, cool metal warming up against his skin as he lifted it closer to his good eye, watching the neon hospital lights reflect in the blue precious stones imbedded into the metal.

„It‘s hers, isn‘t it?“  
Yuki‘s voice was soft and gentle, and Inaho just gave a small affirmative sound. It was, and yet it was not, and now that he had met the original owner face to face, the weight of the pendant seemed to have quadrupled in his hands.  
„Thank you, Yuki-nee.“

 

☩☩☩

 

As with many other events in life, it was a only matter of getting used to the absence of something. With everything that had happened ever since the news of the missile attack in Japan had reached the Orbital Knights, Slaine had hardly had the time to get sentimental about a piece or jewellery he was now missing. No-one else would ever notice it was gone, since with the standard Versian high-collared uniform jackets, he had not been able to wear it openly, so the only people who had known about it probably were the Princess and her handmaiden. The mere thought of who had held it in their hands last constricted his throat as if something was choking him. At first, there had been the nagging poisonous thought that not only the protection charm had not worked on the Princess, but instead cursed her fate, bringing about new warfare instead of reconciliation with Earth.

The moment he saw her, however, alive and breathing and radiant on the edge of a bridge torn into pieces by heavy artillery fire, there was the slightest glimmer of hope within him. Maybe it had helped her after all, and would both protect and remind her that she had a friend who would be there for her may come hell or high water. Where he could not be at her side, at least his only true memento could, and that way, there was no way it could ever be stolen from him.

It was comforting that even when he got stripped down and tortured, this last piece of his old self remained untouchable and far from the Count‘s and traitors‘ grasp, loyally at his Princess‘ side, and that no-one should ever lay hands on it ever again.

 

☩☩☩

 

A biomechanical eye came with a surprising amount of small inconveniences apart from the constant pain and contradictory thought processing he now experienced. One of them was the fact that he had to carry around the interface equipment for copying the data with him at all times, which had him settle for a custom model shoulder holster with a multifunctional pouch instead of a gun. Unbeknownst to most people, however, there was one more item Inaho kept around in there, always.

In many ways, it was irrational to do so, and Inaho had always thought himself someone who would not succumb to petty nostalgia, latching on to objectively useless souvenirs. With war reshaping their society, keeping around needless items was a luxury no-one could allow themselves, and yet, he found himself unable to leave the pendant behind either on Earth or in his room onboard the Deucalion. It had become a familiar weight in his pouch, a constant reminder of encounters that were, encounters that were not, and encounters that inevitably were still to come. Sometimes, Inaho wondered if it was masochistic of him to keep around something that only spoke of his own failure in fully understanding the intricate network of human relations at a crucial time and eventually also of his failure in protecting Seylum, but at the same time, keeping the pendant around had an almost calming effect on him. 

Its first owner and Inaho himself had been bound to each other by their shared history already, the moments that left no traces other than memories, and the moment that had scarred Inaho for life. The necklace only served as one more visible proof of their intertwined paths, and the one thing that had connected them in this war. Slaine had taken his precious Princess back, and Inaho had been left with the discarded remainder of a promise fulfilled too late.

It had become some sort of habit now, that when he could not go to sleep right away at night, his mind still overloaded by the constant data influx and re-evaluation of his left eye, he would retrieve the pendant from the pouch, just to look at it. Inaho was familiar with the use of praying beads in different religions of the world, the use of a tangible object to help people collect their thoughts and keep their rhythm in prayers and meditation, and he thought that in a way, this was what this necklace had become to him.

 

☩☩☩

 

Even if his life had not been enjoyable, the years at Cruhteo‘s mercy had brought a sense of regularity with them. Nothing had ever changed regarding his treatment, his position or his tasks, time moved along and things remained as they were, until everything had abruptly turned upside down. Now, it was his second change of uniform, rank, title, and even name in less than two years. He had never grown attached to the grey Knight‘s robe, only having donned it to serve a purpose, and shedding it just as dispassionately now that it had fulfilled its job.

Unbuttoning the jacket and carelessly throwing it to drift into the bed‘s general direction, Slaine waited for Harklight to return with the remaining elements of the Count‘s uniform, as everything from the coat to the undershirt was different from that of the lower standing nobles. From the corner of his eyes, Slaine caught sight of himself in the mirror embedded into the wardrobe door, a thing he rarely had any use for. Harklight saw to his appearance being presentable, so he did not have to, and it had become hard to face his own image, sometimes. In the idleness of waiting, his gaze fell on the low-cut collar of the white undershirt, revealing just enough of the scars Cruhteo left him with to use it as a ruse to spur sympathy and pity in others when needed, a technique he had employed before, surprisingly making the sight of the old injuries less discomforting. 

The scars in a way had replaced what he had used to wear beneath the heavy cloth of the uniform jackets, and even though it had been almost two years and he rarely thought about it in particular, in this moment, he noticed it again, his hand coming up to touch the back of his neck, now devoid of the fastening of his father‘s necklace. When he had retrieved the Princess from the wrecked Aldnoah Chamber of Saazbaum‘s Landing Castle, she had been clad in UFE military gear stained with too much of her own blood, and the pendant had not been on her person. He remembered the small sting of disappointment he had felt in that moment, somehow able to surface even among all his overall desperation and regret, and even though he had instantly berated himself for even letting it rear its ugly head at all, the thought that she had discarded his wishes for her protection so thoughtlessly in favour of Kaizuka Inaho‘s influence lingered in the deepest recesses of his mind.

„Is something wrong, Slaine-sama?“  
Slaine turned his head slightly to see that Harklight had entered the room carrying the remaining parts of the uniform, looking as concerned as usual when it came to his master‘s state of being.  
„It‘s nothing“, he replied with a thin smile before pulling the undershirt over his head and waiting for Harklight to hand him the new ruffled dress shirt in exchange, „I‘ve only just remembered I used to wear a necklace in the past.“  
„What happened to it?“ Harklight asked as he stepped closer to help Slaine with fastening the cuffs.  
„I lost it“, Slaine stated matter-of-factly, focussing his attention of buttoning the shirt as if the entire subject was trivial and indifferent to him.  
„Would you like me to try and find an identical replacement, maybe?“  
Harklight looked eager as usual when Slaine turned his attention back to him, and he did not doubt that if he so wished, Harklight would personally descend to the battlefield of Earth to search for a facsimile of Dr. Troyard‘s family heirloom.

„Thank you, but there is no replacement for the one I lost.“

 

☩☩☩

 

Talking to himself and discussing the partly contradicting observations of his own mind and that of the analytical engine now embedded into his skull had become one more habit of Inaho‘s, one more thing to help him unwind after battles and to go through strategies and reasonings once more when everything was already over in order to draw conclusions from it for the next mission. And this day‘s battle had resulted in more than one topic to mull over with himself. He had narrowly been saved from certain death, or rather an execution so smoothly orchestrated by a certain pilot of Vers that Inaho had to wonder just where the limits of Tharsis‘ ability of predicting the future were drawn.

Fighting against Slaine Troyard was similar to the games of blind chess Inaho played against Captain Magbaredge, in a way. In either, both competitors knew their opponent well enough to predict their next move, and in the end, the one who would win simply was the one who managed to think just one more step ahead. And even with Inaho now being equipped with the bionic eye prototype, he had come to realise that his skill set was indeed lagging one step behind Slaine‘s as it was at the moment. 

„Today‘s escape was me being lucky, but if things remain as they are, my chances of surviving the next encounter with Slaine Troyard of Vers are less than promising.“  
„There you go again, being wonderfully optimistic.“  
Calm leaned down from the top bunk, brows furrowed, and shoot Inaho a judging stare upside down.  
„My apologies. I‘m merely stating the facts, though.“  
„Depressing facts won‘t help you keep up the morale.“  
Calm sighed at Inaho‘s obvious lack of understanding, then something apparently caught his attention.  
„It‘s that thing again, the Princess‘ necklace, right? You really do keep it around a lot, don‘t you?“ 

For a moment, Inaho was almost startled, his own eyes darting to the pendant he indeed was holding in his right hand. He had not even realised he had taken it out of the pouch this time, too, the movement was just one more muscle memory at this point.  
„I guess I do, yes“, he replied with a shrug, carefully pocketing it again. „She said it was a good luck charm, after all.“  
„Well, if you believe in that kind of thing, I guess it makes sense to keep it around“, Calm mused, sounding not entirely convinced.  
„I do. Also“, Inaho hesitated for a second before continuing, „I hope I will get the chance to return it at some point in the future.“ 

When he spoke again, Calm‘s voice was laced with that certain mixture of sympathy and doubt that everyone on the Deucalion seemed to use when talking about Assyelum with Inaho, as no-one really doubted his analysis of the indicators she was still alive, yet at the same time everyone thought him to be overly optimistic when faced with the facts of her disappearance and apparent switching of sides.  
„To the Princess, you mean?“  
Inaho took a long time to think about his reply, so long that Calm would probably have already given up on the conversation if he had not been used to this side of his friend.

„I guess it depends on whether I‘ll manage to get past that person, and whether he will reclaim what once was his.“

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((A/N: I don't know the first thing about quantum mechanics ahaha. Source of the description would be [this article](http://discovermagazine.com/2005/jun/cover).  
> This episode was a wild ride from start to finish with too many starting points to pick up on all. My esteemed colleague [meguri_aite](http://archiveofourown.org/users/meguri_aite/pseuds/meguri_aite) upon asked stated that she wants "some maybe parallel montage of inaho and slaine", and that sounded like a good starting point to me, even though this is probably not what you had had in mind. I am gomen.))


	5. V = a x b x c = 200 cm³

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _There were certain things you did not buy for yourself, really. Not particularly because you would be embarrassed to buy them or anything, because that was an issue one usually left behind growing up, but simply because it was that type of commodity that never quite made the cut to necessity. You could live happily without them, until at some point, you, in some way or the other, ended up possessing them, anyway._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> V = a x b x c = 200 cm³ : _approximate holding capacity of an average flask_

There were certain things you did not buy for yourself, really. Not particularly because you would be embarrassed to buy them or anything, because that was an issue one usually left behind growing up, but simply because it was that type of commodity that never quite made the cut to necessity. You could live happily without them, until at some point, you, in some way or the other, ended up possessing them, anyway.

Marito obviously had not deliberately set out to become an alcoholic and gone shopping for a collection of small flasks to stash on his person at all times, not even he was that cynical. Recovery from the narrow escape from Tanegashima had taken time and care, neither of which he had been given during the dire circumstances following the atrocious war and devastating event of Heaven‘s Fall, and alcohol had just been a convenient, familiar and effective self-prescribed medication. 

It had really started after his release from the hospital and the questioning by the top brass that had him write a report only to bury it somewhere far from the public‘s eye, the constant sipping during his work hours, that is. Basically having been assigned to office work and teaching for the time being, as even with the riots following the collapse of the moon going on, the military considered him unfit for actual combat, it had been easy to keep around a bottle and a glass on his desk at all times. Or multiple bottles, rather, to have some variety, even though he had not been really picky as long as the liquid did its job of numbing his thoughts and recollections of the screams and bluster still reverberating in his mind. And multiple glasses, as he had kept on misplacing them on shelves and other people‘s desks and any flat surface in his vicinity, really.

He was pretty sure that it had been his co-workers being fed-up with this messy habit of his that had made them place a small package on his desk on the second of June during his third year at the base.  
„A birthday present from your colleagues“, Naishi had awkwardly explained, obviously having been ushered into the role of the representative, „we thought you might find it useful.“  
Marito had had to bite back a bitter laugh after unpacking, as he had not been quite sure if these people secretly hoped he would just quietly drink himself into oblivion and get out of their hair if only they left him alone long enough, but then again, it was preferable to people keeping on telling him to lay off the alcohol for his health‘s sake.  
„Thanks“, he had said instead, more to his own distorted reflection on the metallic surface of the bottle than to anyone in particular, „I appreciate it.“

The flask had in fact proven to be a practical addition to his uniform, he had found out, easy to keep around and to quickly hide somewhere in the rare case that a fussy superior might have dropped by, not that many cared in what constitution their old, out-of-service veterans were, anyway. It had probably been due to him really keeping it on his person twenty four-seven that it had become the token birthday present he was given every year by his fairly unenthusiastic subordinates, similar to how it was hair ties each year for Lieutenant Morita who kept losing them at incredible speed, and new fountain pens for Officer Nakamura who had developed the nervous habit of chewing on his, ruining them so quickly that the management refused to give him new office supplies unless he himself paid for them.

And just like that, Marito suddenly had found himself with quite the collection of different flasks in different sizes and colours, some more fancy than others, some that started leaking after longer usage and some that got scratched very easily. He did not really care for it, it was just an everyday tool to him, and he ended up picking whichever of them was closest at hand in his apartment when he left in the morning.  
That was, until a new doctor got assigned to Shinawara‘s military base.

Dr. Yagarai Souma was by far not the first person to tell him to lay off drinking, not with all the previous medical officers who had lectured him about the dangers of alcohol and clumsily suggested his traumatic experiences as the root of the problem without really offering any alternatives other than a vague „You should try talking about it with someone“, always looking very much like they were inwardly praying that he would not try to disburden his heart in front of them.  
Yagarai was, however, the first to randomly walk up to Marito on an almost daily basis in order to ask how he was doing, the first who actually seemed genuinely concerned, and the first who Marito actually thought said „If you ever want to talk about something, my door is always open“ to him in earnest.

In a way, it was mildly irritating, as Marito thought of himself as not looking that pitiful that he would attract a doctor‘s attention that exclusively, but for some reason, Yagarai seemed hellbent on getting him to take up on his offers and proved to be relentless and impossible to dissuade in his attempts.  
Marito found it to be easier to just comply rather than to waste energy on trying to convince the doctor that it was futile trying to cure him, and opted for answering the regular questions regarding his sleep or lack thereof, the recurring dreams, and his general mood. And each and every time, at some point Yagarai would also assert rather than ask „You have been drinking today, haven‘t you?“, obviously always followed by the same affirmative answer. And also each and every time, the doctor would shoot him a slightly disappointed and concerned glance at that, before moving on with his conversation.

„If you‘re worried about me getting into trouble with my boss because of being unfit for duty, don‘t be, I‘m pretty sure the Captain here doesn‘t care as long as I don‘t mess up anything bad“, Marito one day dryly commented with a shrug, only to be completely caught of guard by Yagarai‘s reaction. For the first time ever since he had known that person, he looked actually slightly angry, crossing his arms in front of his chest and regarding Marito with a frown.  
„You misunderstand, Lieutenant“, he said quietly, voice still even and friendly as before, but with a new sense of authority to it that Marito would never have expected from a man that looked as permanently good-natured as the young doctor, „I don‘t care about it being a breach of military protocol or whatever, I care about you as a person.“

For a moment, Marito had just stared at the other, half expecting it to be a joke rather than such an unexpected declaration of sentiment, but Yagarai remained the very picture of genuine concern.  
„Well, I guess, that makes one of us at least, then“, he retorted without any venom to it, and laughed off the sudden seriousness of their conversation. As hard as it was to truly believe, apparently this person truly cared, more so than it was probably good for him, and definitely for the entirely wrong person, Marito thought, but he found it impossible to tell Yagarai, not if he continued looking at him like that.

He would of course not quit cold turkey just for Yagarai Souma‘s sake, that was out of the question. However, he found himself dialling back on his drinking ever so slightly, and realised to his own annoyance that he was slightly proud of the approving smiles he got out of the doctor when he happened to drop by on his impromptu check-ups and found Marito to be fairly sober. Yagarai wasn‘t the person to exuberantly praise any improvement in that regard, in fact, he did not comment with words at all, and yet it somehow was the best encouragement Marito had received so far. It had long since become a part of his routines to drop by the doctor‘s office for a chat rather than a medical examination, and an enjoyable part of his routines, too. 

„If getting rid of this bad habit of yours is supposed to be a successful undertaking, you need to get rid of these handy enablers first, Lieutenant“, Yagarai said during one of those meetings, vaguely pointing to where the cap of the flask was just peeking out of Marito‘s shirt pocket.  
„Who says I want to get rid of this habit?“ Marito asked with a lopsided smile and sarcasm dripping from his words in return, but Yagarai was having none of it.  
„I do“, he simply stated with friendly insistence, gliding up to the examination couch on which Marito was sitting with one smooth move of his swivel chair, on exact eye level with his patient now, and simply reached out to extract the flask from the breast pocket of Marito‘s shirt without hesitation. Having no issues with invading another person‘s personal space like that probably was a prerequisite to becoming a doctor, but still Marito found himself dumbfounded and only really catching on to what had happened as Yagarai had already with a practiced push against the bed frame rolled back to his desk and stashed the flask away in its top drawer, locking it shut and putting the key away safely in the pocket of his lab coat. 

„I‘m pretty sure you‘re not in the position to confiscate personal belongings from officers outranking you, doctor‘s degree or no“, Marito said slowly, his hand automatically reaching out to feel the empty worn out pocket, now missing the familiar weight of the metal flask.  
„Then you are free to file a complaint with your Captain about Dr. Yagarai overstepping his authority“, Yagarai offered with a wide smile.  
„I‘ll be considering it“, Marito huffed, getting up from the examination couch and for a moment just remained standing where he was, looking at the doctor from above. Yagarai held his gaze with his usual gentle smile and the infuriatingly self-satisfied expression of a person who had gotten exactly what they wanted. It was a mixture that made it really hard to be even remotely sullen, as he practically radiated good intentions, as he always did.  
As Marito turned to leave with a sigh of defeat, Yagarai cheerfully called after him.  
„See you around, Lieutenant!“

A few days after that incident, Marito was on his way to his office when he happened to meet Yagarai who was just walking down the same hallway, giving his favourite patient a wave as soon as he spotted him.  
„Good day to you, too“, Marito replied, already almost walked past the other man, when Yagarai suddenly grabbed for his shirt pocket in a movement so quick and precise that Marito hardly had time to register it before the doctor had already already fished out the flask.  
„My, that‘s a different one from last time“, he observed with the faintest of sly grins on his face, „at least you didn‘t break into my office, then, I guess?“  
„What do you even think of me, Doctor?“ Marito complained, scratching his neck self-consciously of having been caught so easily. Not that he had agreed on this whole withdrawal thing in the first place, but it was still embarrassing in a way.  
„Only the best, Lieutenant. I shall be holding on to this in the meantime, too, then“, Yagarai practically chirped and sauntered off with his new trophy.

From then on, it became a half-hearted game of hide-and-seek between the two of them whenever they happened to cross paths. Marito would try to put the flask away anywhere else, folders, random drawers, other people‘s jackets, as soon as he saw the doctor approaching, while Yagarai seemed to make it his hobby to sneak up on him as inconspicuously as anyhow possible. For someone who was not a member of active duty, he was surprisingly stealthy and fast, Marito had to learn, and before long, the doctor had managed to pilfer quite the percentage of Marito‘s collection.

„How many of these do you own, exactly?“, he asked with what appeared to border on scientific curiosity one day after having succeeded to steal yet another one by silently walking up to Marito sitting at his desk and fishing the flask out of its usual place by reaching over the Lieutenant‘s shoulder.  
„I‘m not sure, more then ten, less than a hundred, I guess“, Marito replied nonchalantly, „why do you ask?“  
„I‘m slowly running out of drawers to lock them in, you see“, Yagarai smiled at him, „so I was wondering if I have to ask the boss for a new file cabinet soon, or if that‘s most of them by now.“  
„I think you own most of the set now, Doctor.“  
„Well, we‘ll see about that, won‘t we?“ 

Marito really wondered when it had become an enjoyable part of his day that someone downright threatened him with stealing his belongings, but looking up to his friend standing next to his desk and regarding him with the warmest smile, he found it did not actually matter, really. And for all he cared, this game could go on for a long time still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on this gem from Shimura-sensei‘s countdown art: [Nainainai nanimounai](http://a0ikit0iki.tumblr.com/post/105434072852)~  
> Those two are probably the only couple whose interactions do not hurt you just watching right now, bless them and their relationship.


	6. 5% VAT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kaizuka siblings were told multiple times that they were lucky, really, considering how much worse things might have gotten for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5% VAT : _value-added tax in Japan up to 2014_

Heaven‘s Fall had changed the course of many things - history, politics, ethics, social structures - but one truth continued to last even throughout the chaos that followed the end of the war, and that was that the world ran on money. Apart from the human tragedy that the war had brought to almost every single individual, it left the economy in shambles and people struggling to reclaim their previous status in life. While Japan was less affected by the rioting and looting that happened elsewhere, growing up was mainly coined by the constant reminders of all the things you would never have.

The Kaizuka siblings were told multiple times that they were lucky, really, considering how much worse things might have gotten for them. Even though they had lost their parents and had no close living relatives left, thus falling into the government‘s care that prioritised finding a home for infants and toddlers first, often splitting siblings up in the process, they had the fortune of being taken in by former neighbours down the street who promised to let them stay together. 

For Yuki, it was the most important thing to take care of the single thing that remained of the family life she had known, promising Inaho again and again that no matter what happened, she would be there for him, long before he was even able to articulate words himself in response. Inaho, on the other hand, grew up knowing nothing different than living with their foster parents, adjusting to an economical and spartan way of life and helping out the elderly couple with all tasks he could while his sister was at school.

*

Their benefactors never complained and praised both of them for being hardworking and polite children, and yet Yuki always knew that she and her brother posed an additional stress on the couple, and decided that as soon as she could manage it, she would try to find a job making enough money to sustain them both. The opportunity presented itself during her second year of high school.

„By the way, I‘ve been thinking about joining the military after graduation next year“, Yuki told Inaho when she picked him up from his elementary school one afternoon, trying to sound as casual as possible. Her brother turned his head sharply and stared at her for a few seconds.  
„I thought you hated the military practice in your curriculum“, he said suspiciously, and Yuki cursed herself in hindsight for all the whining she had subjected her brother to regarding that topic.  
„That didn‘t stop me from getting good grades in it, though“, she shrugged, and as Inaho still looked worried, she quickly added: „We‘re living in times of peace right now, so it‘s not like I‘d be doing frontline work or anything. I thought about applying as an instructor as soon as possible, that way I could come back to work at your school, you know.“

Inaho turned his focus back to the road they were walking down, apparently thinking about what she had said for some time, before musing in all seriousness as usual: „That would mean I would have to address you as ‚Officer Kaizuka‘, Yuki-nee, right?“  
Yuki stared at her brother in flat disbelief that out of all things, he had decided to wonder about such a technicality, but the way he refused to face her and kept his expression a bit too still, she knew he was only teasing her, and she pulled him into a one-armed embrace.  
„So, you don‘t mind me doing that?“  
„Of course I don‘t“, he replied instantly, and after a moment, added more quietly: „As long as you take care, Yuki-nee, and don‘t force yourself.“  
Yuki hugged her brother tighter in response.  
„Don‘t worry, it will be alright, Nao-kun, I promise.“

*

Working for the UFE had multiple upsides apart from the fairly good and dependable salary, one being the relatively cheap apartments offered for rent to enlisted personnel all over the city. It was nothing grand, but still, it was a home for just the two of them, and the first thing Yuki prided herself on having managed all on her own. While she was out working, Inaho took care of all household chores with the same diligence as before, while still miraculously managing to excel in all of his studies. 

According to the unwritten rules of society, there were compliments it was best to react to by being bashful and belittling whatever you had been praised for, but when it came to her brother, Yuki always immediately agreed with whoever called him a genius and predicted a splendid future for him.  
However fiercely proud she was of him, he remained rather humble and usually just said that whatever he had achieved was nothing remarkable or outstanding, and never asked for anything as a reward.

He did not ask for much in general, really, usually realising his own goals without talking about it and keeping his wishes to himself. That was why it actually surprised Yuki when one morning over breakfast, she caught him staring at a page in one of those advertisement leaflets Inaho insisted on taking with him from every shop so that he could find the cheapest offer for just about everything by comparing prices.  
„What have you got there?“, she asked, leaning across the table to try and spot what had caught his eye. Inaho startled and then quickly turned the page.  
„Nothing really important, Yuki-nee, don‘t mi-“  
„Nonsense“, she insisted, setting aside her toast to snatch the paper from him before he could protest. 

Going back to the page she had seen her brother stare at so intently, Yuki saw that it was the media store‘s advertisement for numerous new technological devices. The one featured most prominently was the latest smartphone model, and while she hardly kept up with all the new features these tablets contained, even to her the list of its attributes and abilities read impressive, and so did the price.  
„Is that the one you were looking at?“, she asked, trying to catch her brother‘s eye, but he just sighed and got up to pick up her empty plate and cup to carry it to the sink.  
„I‘m just keeping up with the new tech is all, call it scientific interest. The flip phone you gave me is still working perfectly fine, so I won‘t need a replacement any time soon.“

He turned his back to her to start washing the dishes, and Yuki leaned back in her chair, contemplatively chewing on her remaining toast. There were at least two zeros too many on that price tag, and they both knew it, especially with the cold winter of the current year eating into their heating expenses. And yet, Yuki carefully ripped out the page from the leaflet in a moment of Inaho noisily scrubbing the iron pan, and pocketed it in her wallet.  
Sometimes, it really was annoying and exhausting being a reasonable adult having to decide how to deal with money, but sometimes, being the one able to make the choices had upsides, too.

*

„Happy birthday, Nao-kun!“  
Inaho stopped on door sill, staring at her for a moment, obviously surprised to find her awake and having prepared breakfast before him. It had been hard on her, she was not able to deny that, but it was worth being able to counter his surprise with a smug smile.  
„No cake this time?“ he asked with raised eyebrows after having overcome his minute state of confusion and taking his seat.  
„Not after you told me last year that you‘d rather have none than a burned one, no“, she quipped with a fake pout, „you can bake one for yourself if you want to.“  
The corners of Inaho‘s lips twitched into one of his rare smiles.  
„I can make one for after dinner tonight. Would you prefer chocolate or hazelnut filling, Yuki-nee?“

„It‘s your birthday, so you should pick what you like best“, Yuki replied generously, inwardly hoping for the chocolate cream cake he had prepared for her birthday in summer.  
„Hazelnut, then, I suppose.“  
Little brothers should not be this impossible to read regarding their levels of what they meant in seriousness and what they said teasingly on purpose, Yuki mused, before reaching into the pocket of her jacket to retrieve a small package and clearing her throat.  
„Maybe you want to unpack your present before you leave for school, you might be able to use it already.“  
Inaho hesitated in accepting the package and just quietly stared at her for a few seconds.  
„You didn‘t have to get me anything, Yuki-nee“, he finally said in a low voice, carefully taking the package from her with both hands.  
„Yes, I did“, Yuki simply replied, „and I wanted, too.“

She sipped on her coffee as she watched her brother peel off the tape and unwrap the present with his usual precision in agonising slowness, and almost started fidgeting in her seat when finally with a small sound the sleek, black device dropped from the wrapping paper into his palm.  
He was silent and simply staring at it for so long that Yuki already wanted to ask if anything was wrong when he suddenly snapped his head up to look her in the eye, and to her surprise, he appeared more upset than happy.  
„Yuki-nee, you really shouldn‘t have, I mean it wasn‘t necessary and it‘s not worth it-“

She put her cup down on the table surface with an audible clank.   
„Nao-kun“, she said sternly, and then, softer: „You are worth way more than that, and I can hardly ever get you all the things you deserve, so please accept this, at least. It‘s your birthday, after all.“  
Inaho cast his eyes down, and carefully put the phone down on the table, before getting up and rounding the table so quickly Yuki had still hardly processed it as he already pulled her into an embrace.  
„Thank you, Yuki-nee.“  
Yuki smiled and hugged back, for a moment forgetting all that loomed outside these walls and her family, all the responsibilities and policies and politics that were part of her life now, focussing just on being with her brother which was all that mattered.  
„You‘re welcome, Nao-kun.“

„Maybe I‘ll do a chocolate cake tonight after all.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday to our favourite Mecha ~~Jesus~~ Odin, may you get to live to see your next one, as well! This was supposed to be uploaded on the day proper and written before the episode, hence possible canon incongruities, even though Yuki‘s motivations might have been more complex anyway. Buuut things happened and so this is late, I apologise.  
>  Also, with this chapter I can now officially add „look up Japanese value-added tax percentages“ to my list of „things I‘d never thought I‘d do for fic“.  
> TL;DR: I love love love Yuki-nee, don‘t kill her next episode please and thank


	7. 3/4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Inaho thinks of himself as better in reading attack patterns and technology than in reading people themselves, but it takes no psychology major versed in interpreting body language to easily read the newest UFE‘s prisoner‘s mood. From the way he refuses to say a single word and lies motionlessly curled up on his cell‘s cot, there are more than enough clues to arrive at one clear verdict: He is pouting._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3/4 : _meter of the traditional Mazurka dance_

.  
 _One_  
.

Inaho thinks of himself as better in reading attack patterns and technology than in reading people themselves, but it takes no psychology major versed in interpreting body language to easily read the newest UFE‘s prisoner‘s mood. From the way he refuses to say a single word and lies motionlessly curled up on his cell‘s cot, there are more than enough clues to arrive at one clear verdict: He is pouting.

In all his fights so far, Inaho has collected some experience regarding the behaviour of the Knights of Vers. There had been the ones easy to rile up, charging at him with rekindled rage after every hit they had taken and attacking until the bitter end, the ones that had loved to stage their fight like a theatre performance with them in an elevated position, ironically making their inevitable fall even more literal, and those he had felt surrendering in their last moments with a weird sense of sportsmanship in a duel to the death.

Taking into account these meetings and his impressions from the broadcasts the Orbital Knights occasionally released as threats to the UFE, Inaho had concluded that the Knights of Vers were in general haughty, proud and absolutely cocksure of themselves, rather willing to die than to surrender. That alone made this one an odd one out, he muses, since according to Lieutenant Marito‘s platoon who had taken him into custody, this Knight had put up no fight whatsoever, and spent his time glaring daggers at his captors until they had cleared him off the suspicion of carrying concealed weapons and dumped him into his cell. And ever since, he had been lying there, most likely scowling at the unfairness of the universe.

Captain Magbaredge had allowed him to try and interrogate to him ( _„Not that he has done any talking so far, but all means, Kaizuka Junior, try your luck.“_ ), and he is fairly sure that no matter how taciturn the man might want to seem, deep down he probably is rooted to the same culture of proud aristocrats unable to resist simple bait.  
„How are you feeling?“, he offers after a few minutes of sitting in front of the cell in silence, feeling how purposefully the other ignores him.  
„Seems like you‘re not too well. I heard you were subjected to a full body search“, he goes on in a conversational tone, hoping to lure the other into some sort of complaint. And true enough, he is not disappointed.  
„I would never have believed I might get subjected to such primitive investigations“, the man drawls, still rather directed at the wall than at his visitor, and Inaho wonders just how that person expected prisoners of war were treated in general.

„We can‘t risk you using a poison tooth“, he explains truthfully, and to his satisfaction, this stirs the other into motion.  
„What an outdated notion.“  
With him sitting up now, Inaho is able to get a first good look at the man. He seems young, definitely of the generation that had been born during the heyday of the Vers Empire but grown up in the years after Heaven‘s Fall, and looks adequately pompous as his title suggests, even when locked away in a rusty cell.

Now having effectively been lured into a conversation, he also proves to be quick to answer, flippant and casually condescending in tone, and very diverse in his reactions. Inaho files away each and every one in his left eye‘s memory RAM. He is dismissive of Earth‘s hatred for the Vers aesthetics, surprised at Inaho‘s sides to the story, disappointed and angry when it comes to the Princess‘ treatment in the war, and upset at realising he completely fails at being unreadable. In short, this man is a disaster during interrogation, Inaho decides.  
All the better for him.

The longer the questioning drags on, the more the other gives away without even realising it. Mazuurek - the man uses his name in his speech without noticing, obviously so used to everyone around him knowing who he is, anyway, that the thought does not even occur to him that his Terran jailers might not - is a very active and restless listener, it turns out. He frequently changes seating position, stands up, walks about the two square metres of space in the holding cell, and offers a palette of emotion that is too broad to be entirely faked. He is someone carrying his heart on his sleeve and failing at pulling off being smug and sarcastic, and Inaho thanks whatever good karma had brought this person into his grasp.

If it is manipulating one high-ranking Versian soldier into becoming his eyes and ears where even his analytical engine fails to reach to, then he has found the one person where he is confident he can pull it off.

.  
 _and Two_  
.

„Not that I don‘t appreciate what you are doing for me, but aren‘t you afraid you‘ll get into trouble for this? Freeing a prisoner of war and actively assisting in the escape is a grave offence, at least in the Versian military.“  
For the probably fifteenth time in the short half an hour that their escape from the base had been underway now, Rayet regrets not having pulled the trigger at that person‘s back after all. It had been tempting enough, maybe even more so as he had turned to smile at her as if he had just met his best friend from childhood days, only hours after having told her to be grateful her father had found death by Kataphrakt rather than death by public execution. Rayet cannot even say if he was just that opportunistic or actually stupid enough to latch on to whatever kindness was seemingly offered to him.

Before she can kick the seat in front of her or tell that irritating red tailcoat wearer to shut up lest he wants to bite of his tongue if Inaho hits an uneven part of the makeshift road, the escape‘s mastermind himself replies, as usual not showing any signs of stress.  
„In case we are found out, there will most certainly be unpleasant repercussions, yes.“  
His eyes are fixed on the path before them, and Rayet is not sure whether she or their Martian guest stares at Inaho more incredulously.

„Then why risk it at all?“, Mazuurek asks and voices what Rayet had wondered herself nonstop ever since Inaho had suggested her tagging along in springing out a highly valuable prisoner in the vague hope of successfully turning him into some sort of double agent on grounds of his impressions of the man, in the same casual tone as others might have suggested going to the canteen together or hanging out after work hours.  
„Well, it‘s not as if I have a variety of candidates for the job I can choose from“, Inaho states as if that explains everything, „and besides, in case my theory proves to be correct, your input will be most valuable to the UFE, so in the longterm, they are bound to profit from this decision of mine.“

Rayet is tempted to ask Inaho if maybe all of his success and promotions finally had gotten to his head and ego after all, because even with how forgiving Captain Magbaredge had proven to be under his advice regarding Rayet herself, she is pretty certain that after the events of Novostalsk, the line would be drawn much less negligently, not to mention that Mazuurek had nearly wiped out Lieutenant Marito and his platoon. In a way, it was surprising enough that Inaho even considered asking the person for help that had almost become the killer of his one and only precious sister, but she would not dream of discussing that sort of thing with Inaho who would probably only lecture here about ends and means and percentages in return.

To her annoyance, it is again her former compatriot who picks up on her thoughts with his own remark.  
„You should be careful, though, you know what they say - while people love treason per se, they never praise the actual traitor.“  
Inaho turns his face towards his front passenger at that with an expression of impressed amazement, as far as it goes for Inaho, anyway.  
„A Ceasar quote“, he says in an approving tone, and Rayet holds back a sigh. „You really have studied Earth‘s culture thoroughly, haven‘t you?“

„Your surprise at that is actually insulting“, Mazuurek complains, and this time Rayet actually kicks the back of his seat.  
She knows that she is probably the last person who can throw stones while sitting in the glass house that is her new life as a UFE soldier, but hell, Kaizuka Inaho sure has the ability to befriend the most impossible of people.

.  
 _and Three_  
.

For the first two hours or so of his escape, he still half expects everything to turn out to be some mix-up, really, and if a battalion of soldiers had suddenly shown up to drag him back again, he would not even have been surprised. In a way, it was too good to be true - he had not even spent a full 24 hours in the enemy‘s prison when the doors had slid open with no-one in sight and offered him a route to freedom. In retrospect, he probably should have worried about it being a trap in order to stage an escape attempt ending in him being shot, but at the point in time in question, he had simply thanked his lucky stars and run back the way he had been dragged in handcuffs only hours earlier.

Leave it to the young soldier with his mechanical eye and his expatriate accomplice to pick him up and escort him to safety, even though the girl had told him that she had half hoped for him getting shot by some of the guards before her arrival. In the end, actions speak louder than words, however.  
What a weird duo that had been, though, Mazuurek muses as he crouches to dig through the kitbag the girl had tossed him, surveying the items. From food and water to a light coloured thin tunic and sun protection, the contents include everything needed for a desert trip, alongside a map and compass with handwritten instructions, no doubt by Kaizuka Inaho himself. The only thing that is conspicuously absent is any type of weapon, but then again, that is understandable, too.

He zips the bag up again and ventures on, his polished riding boots sinking into the sand up to his ankles at every step. If not for the entire context of this being an escape from death or lifelong imprisonment, Mazuurek thinks to himself he probably would enjoy this trip, too. He had read books about the deserts of this part of the world before, the highly adapted animals having found sanctuary there, and the way people managed to settle even in this hostile environment, not unlike they eventually had with space. Human tenacity sure is an impressive thing, he muses contently as he marches on, looking forward already to the reaction of his subordinates at the castle upon his return, even sans Kataphrakt.

In a way, he would not even have been surprised if Kaizuka Inaho had gift-wrapped that one for him, as well, considering how smoothly that boy had pulled off everything else. He sure was an impressive one, from his faultless composure to his utter self-assurance.  
„Mazuurek-san, take good care of Princess Asseylum“, he had chosen as his parting words, and it had been equal amounts request and order.  
No-one had dared to call him simply Mazuurek-san ever since his early childhood days, probably, and here was this Terran boy interacting with him on friendly but equal grounds as if it was only matter of course to him to free prisoners and let them in on sensitive intelligence.

To do that with such conviction of his eventual success, that person had to be either a genius or completely off his tracks, but Mazuurek likes to believe it is the former. It appears more plausible given that Kaizuka is not the only very young master strategist currently at work, pulling the strings - after all, there was also the one who had been the original reason for Mazuurek to finally go into battle himself, the one half of the Counts hated for his upsurge and the other admired for his dedication.  
Kaizuka Inaho and Slaine Troyard, Mazuurek ponders and stares off into the distance where the pale pink of dawn begins to bleed into the dark of the cool night, slowly creeping across the dunes he still has to climb.

„It really appears this war will be decided by the young generation‘s choices, then“, he tells no-one in particular and re-adjusts the bag‘s straps digging into his right shoulder and ventures on with renewed enthusiasm.  
„I guess I have to wait and see who makes the final move first between the two of them.“

.  
 _repeat_  
.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _„Proditionem amo, sed proditores non laudo.“_ (I love treason, but I do not praise the traitor.) - Generally attributed to Gaius Iulius Caesar, let us just ignore the doubts surrounding this quote for the time being, please.
> 
> I‘m not exactly sure how it happened, but Count Easter Cake Folk Dance of Arabia won me over faster than Inaho expands his fan club in universe. Disagreeing with the quote used here, I tend to like traitors a lot, in fictional narratives, at least, so maybe it‘s actually zerozero surprising after all.  
> Also, a special shout-out to my dear deer for accidentally providing Polish Mahiro with the fitting job description before his appearance:  
>  _$pitzeL sounds like a sawano title alright_  
>  _fucking aLIEz_  
>  _or however he spells them_


	8. i= r + π

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _„Excuse me, I did not mean to bother you“, Harklight apologises with a bow. „I just wanted to reaffirm that you were absolutely sure of your decision just now, Slaine-sama.“_   
>  _Slaine feels his brow furrow._   
>  _„What are you talking about?“_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i= r + π : _Composition of the interest rate added to a debt_

„-ma. Slaine-sama, excuse me-“  
Slaine snaps into focus again and notices that Harklight has followed him out of the dock into the corridor where he had been standing starring out into the asteroid belt without really really seeing anything.  
„Sorry, Harklight, what did you just say?“, he asks in a friendly tone, trying his best to reign in any traces of impatience and tiredness. It is not the other man‘s fault Slaine feels as if he is slowly drowning in quicksilver and losing his grip on everything important, and he would do his best not to accidentally lash out at one of the people close to him again.

„Excuse me, I did not mean to bother you“, Harklight apologises with a bow. „I just wanted to reaffirm that you were absolutely sure of your decision just now, Slaine-sama.“  
Slaine feels his brow furrow.  
„What are you talking about?“  
„About you leaving Herschel to me. I mean, it‘s an asset you should-“  
„Harklight“, Slaine interrupts his companion decidedly, but smiles softly as his subordinate freezes on the spot. „If I had not been sure, I would not have said it.“

„I‘m not doubting your judgement, Slaine-sama, far from it! It‘s just-“, Harklight hesitates and avoids Slaine‘s eyes, apparently finding something of great interest to look at on the steel floor.  
„Count Marylcian challenged me to a duel, not vice versa. Fighting him was a necessity in order to prove my position. I was never after his Kataphrakt in specific, especially as none can be of more use to me than Tharsis. Looking at it like that and with Count Cruhteo‘s and Count Saazbaum‘s Landing Castles destroyed on Earth, securing my own Landing Castle had priority to me. Herschel is mine to give to whoever I deem fit“, Slaine explains patiently, takes a step towards the other man and gently touches his arm.  
„And that just so happens to be you, Harklight.“

Harklight lifts his head abruptly, and Slaine finds himself confronted with an expression that radiates gratitude and admiration in such quantity it is hard to bear.  
„Thank you, my Lord“, Harklight breathes out and bows again, as so often seemingly intent to make himself even physically appear smaller than his Count.  
„There is nothing to thank me for“, Slaine replies, not removing his hand, and smiles honestly this time. „You have proven to be the most loyal and capable soldier I could have wished for, so it is only natural you should be rewarded for it.“

„I did not work for you in hope for a reward, Sir!“  
Harklight straightens himself in a sudden movement in obvious horror of being misunderstood, and for a moment, Slaine is able to see him as the taller, stern-faced senior soldier he probably would have been afraid of crossing only two years in the past when everything had been so different, but it passes as soon as the other continues to speak.  
„I do because I admire you and your unyielding strength, Slaine-sama, truly and honestly. No-one has struggled harder and proven to be more inspiring than you, and I mean what I say.“

For a few seconds, Slaine cannot bring himself to speak as his closest ally looks at him with such utter conviction and voices his believing into this Terran up-comer who had not shied back from plotting the death of the highest ranking leaders of his home country so easily and clearly with no trace of doubt or sarcasm in his words.  
Harklight‘s earnestness causes the same bittersweet reaction in Slaine as usual; the warm feeling of appreciation, genuine affection and mutual respect, and at the same time the slowly rising dreadful premonition at the back of his mind that as everything in his life, it was not going to last, and losing Harklight was going to hurt more than he had steeled himself for yet. He shakes his head in a futile attempt to silence the thought.

„They say devotion is something that is owed, not earned, and you never owed me anything, Harklight. Quite the opposite, I owe a lot to you“, he says instead of anything else, and he means it. He could not have done it alone, not only setting up the trap for Saazbaum and Kaizuka Inaho, but also just surviving the whispered slander and insults that still followed him around the Moon Base like a second shadow, if not for the solid reassuring presence at his side.

At that, he witnesses Harklight‘s serious expression dissolve into a gentle smile, and the man suddenly reaches out to catch Slaine‘s hand still resting on his shoulder in his own. In one swift movement, he kneels down in front of Slaine who is too surprised to react, still, as he feels the other man‘s lips brush over his knuckles in a fleeting touch, before Harklight looks back at him with absolute determination.  
„I chose to devote myself to you, it has nothing to do with debt or duty. You are the one who managed to overcome the biggest obstacles while never losing sight of your goals, and in my world, there is no-one I would rather sacrifice myself for than that person.“

He can see Harklight bristle with dedication and eagerness to prove his loyalty to his Lord in battle, to give his life for him if it came to it, and it feels like a stab to his chest. It is as if he stared into a taunting mirror showing a distant reflection his old self, all that blind idealism to fight for something not worth dying for, and his own disillusionment with the Counts he had tried to prove his value to so desperately burns bitter in his throat. He has to turn his face from Harklight back to the darkness of space outside the window, masking his frown with a hollow chuckle, as his hand still caught in his servant‘s grip feels as if it is weighed down by a promise of protection he knows he cannot keep.  
„Good hunting to you, then, Harklight.“

Different from the version of himself in the past he sometimes sees in Harklight, Slaine now knows from his own painful experience that truly and honestly, blind admiration is the furthest from understanding anything at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> „Devotion should be owed, not earned“ is a line out of Young Gun‘s _Sons of Apathy_ which I got out of this [fanmix](http://8tracks.com/gallifreyevermore/worlds).  
>  „Adoration is furthest from understanding“ is borrowed from Bleach‘s Aizen Sousuke, and still the most impressive thing that character has said so far in my book.


	9. 4 + 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _„You do know I don‘t bite, Lieutenant Marito, don‘t you?“_   
> _„Pardon?“_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4 + 2 : _number of stripes on a Captain‘s and Lieutenant‘s uniform respectively_

„You do know I don‘t bite, Lieutenant Marito, don‘t you?“  
„Pardon?“  
Marito turned his head from mindlessly starring out at the passing landscape towards his fellow passenger on the jeep‘s rear bench seat with a small jump. Captain Magbaredge was still facing the window on her side, not looking in his direction all, even though she had just clearly addressed him. 

It really was ridiculous, Marito noted, how they had instinctively tried to sit as far apart from the other as possible, each practically pressed to the respective door, and how they had spent the last half an hour purposefully doing their best at ignoring the other person in favour of paying intense attention to the barren wastelands out on both sides of the narrow road in complete silence. Upon realising the tense atmosphere, their driver had completely buried any attempt at smalltalk a few kilometres from the base they had landed at earlier, and thus they had all remained unnaturally quiet and still.

After a few more beats of silence, Captain Magbaredge finally tore her eyes from the window and turned to face him, looking at him with that almost investigative quality that she usually displayed, hands relaxedly interlaced on her crossed legs.  
„What I mean is that a grown man and veteran soldier such as yourself should not almost jump out of his own skin whenever I enter the room.“

„I thought showing respect is a good thing and part of protocol“, Marito countered sheepishly, remembering the last instance of such a meeting happening only too well. I had only been a few hours earlier after all that the Captain had suddenly shown up at his doorstep to announce that he was to accompany her to a meeting with the top brass stat, no questions because this was an order, departure in minus forty, get ready on time. He had almost dropped his coffee cup, if memory served him right.

„There is a difference between showing respect and acting as if I was out to bite off their head at any instance, Lieutenant Marito“, Magbaredge explained slowly and carefully, and Marito could clearly hear the thin edge of amusement in her voice now. He allowed himself a deep inhale. Apparently he was not about to get mercilessly scolded by her, but instead the Captain was trying to strike up a conversation in her usual laconic fashion. 

To be quite honest, he had really spent a long time considering whether or not to sign up for duty aboard the Deucalion again, for more reasons than one. There had been the ghost of that Martian Kataphrakt turned UFE battleship haunting him in general, and there had been the reminder of his failure to protect his men in flesh and blood commanding it, and neither had been a fairly convincing argument for his return. In the end, he had let himself get talked into it by Officer Kaizuka and Yagarai-sensei who had both claimed that the team would be at a loss without him. But even with all that, working under Magbaredge‘s command had remained something he had not been looking all that forward too, no offence to her quality military leadership.

„You caught me completely off guard back on Tanegashima, and that still kind of shows through, what can I say“, he then replied with a vague gesture, and saw Magbaredge raise one eyebrow in feigned surprsie.  
„I thought we had settled that issue with me gaining access to your therapy records“, she mused, and Marito felt himself flinch ever so slightly in his seat.  
„Which was a blatant case of breaching medical confidentially on Yagarai-sensei‘s part, by the way, so excuse me for not being aware that this changed your mind about me.“

„Stop blaming everything on your, how did you put it, primary physician?“  
Marito opened his mouth to protest that while admittedly the drinking therapy had probably been as much his own influence as Yagarai‘s, he had had absolutely no say in the handing over of his therapy notes, but the way there was the tiniest smile pulling at the corners of the Captain‘s mouth had him sigh in defeat instead.  
„Whatever, if it was of use to you, I guess there was no harm in it.“

Magbaredge hummed non-descriptively in reply, and for a while, they fell back into silence, even though it felt noticeably less heavy and suffocating this time. Marito made a mental note to himself that he still had to berate Yagarai for passing on his notes on their therapy sessions without his patient‘s prior consent to it, even though Marito was fairly sure that no matter what he might say, the other would find a way to smile his way out of any and all allegations, he always did.   
Then, from the corner of his eyes he noticed that Magbaredge was still watching him, and despite her initial complaint, he could not help clearing his throat a bit self-consciously. 

„Is something else the matter, Captain?“  
„Not really“, she replied, leaning back in her seat a little. Even though she had said that, Marito still felt as if she expected the conversation to continue, so he picked up on something he had asked himself ever since he had almost dropped that coffee mug a few hours ago.  
„If you don‘t mind me asking, why did you ask me of all people to escort you to the meeting? Nevermind what you think of what happened in the past, isn‘t that spot usually reserved for Mizusaki?“

Magbaredge seemed to think it over for a bit before answering.  
„No matter what they might say about themselves, in the end the top brass still is a rather old-fashioned bunch and probably will approve of me bringing along a male veteran from the last war as an escort, especially seeing how you had your name cleared regarding your assessment of the Versian fighting power.“  
„In other word‘s, you‘re completely taking advantage of me“, Marito summed up dryly, and Magbaredge looked at him entirely deadpan as she instantly responeded with: „Of course, what did you think?“

Marito let out a chuckle.  
„You‘re just as blunt as your brother sometimes.“  
He only really caught on to what minefield he had stepped on when Magbaredge stilled for a second, but to his surprise, her expression softened ever so slightly as she sighed and shook her head.  
„You really have no sense of tact, Lieutenant Marito. But all in all, I suppose you aren‘t half bad a soldier.“

They spent the rest of the ride until a very relieved driver dropped them off at the entrance to the main building of the base in silence once more, but for probably the first time ever since he had met Captain Darzana Magbaredge of the Wadatsumi back in Shinawara, Marito felt it was not a product of resentment, but instead a mutual understanding that sometimes, words were entirely superfluous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love everyone ~~in this bar~~ on this ship, really, and the field trip of those two was just one highlight of last week‘s episode, especially with their normal respective sidekicks busy pouting on the bridge and picking fights with teenagers in the canteen in order to defend their BFF‘s honour. But I think no words could have added anything to the glory of that scene, haah.  
>  I‘m so anxious that the Mustang and Clydesdale Platoons will suffer losses next episode aaaah orz


	10. 45 g

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _„It is the one proof I have that she was definitely here, on Earth, with us.“_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 45 g : _the weight of Slaine‘s pendant_

„Welcome back home, Mazuurek.“  
Count Barouhcruz is already waiting at the door for him as he is making his way across the landing bridge. There is the familiar sound of the magnetic device in his soles that keep him grounded even in the low gravity field that is Moon Base‘s docking station activating and connecting, and he realises how strange it is that in just the little time he had spent on Earth, it had grown to feel unnatural. The sands of the desert had destroyed the set he had previously worn, just one more practical proof that Earth seemed so entirely incompatible with Vers in all its sleek, metallic glory.

„It is only thanks to your kindness of putting in a good word for me, Count Barouhcruz“, Mazuurek says once he has reached the doorway and bows politely, „I am truly indebted to you.“  
He can practically feel the other man absorb the praise as he gives a short nod in return and smiles at his junior in an almost patronising manner.  
„I shall remember that“, he announces and gives Mazuurek a pat on the back as he steers him through the corridors he obviously is fairly familiar with. He truly settled in to this new life as Troyard‘s ally, Mazuurek notes. „But in all honesty, I am glad that you chose to rejoin our cause, we are in need of dedicated and upstanding men like you.“

„Hearing you are thinking that even after my humiliating defeat is more than reassuring, thank you“, Mazuurek replies honestly, and observes his old friend from the corner of his eyes. As usual, Barouhcruz‘ posture is impeccable, and there are no hints as to his sudden change of heart visible at all in his face. The same small, self-confident smile as always, but that is it. Barouhcruz is an dispassionate man in general, at least most definitely the least passionate of their unlikely trio, and from the looks of it, none of his experiences ever since Slaine Troyard had taken over the Orbital Knights had changed anything about that. Not even the death of what arguably had been his closest friend.

Mazuurek frowns and catches himself criticising this attitude on someone else despite his own actions. Not that he and Marylcian had gotten along amazingly well - obviously their vastly different attitude to Earth and all of its wonders had been a deal breaker for that - but still, even if it had been a fair duel, Marylcian had been killed by a person that is most likely an enemy of the state in an underhanded and probably staged manner, and yet Mazuurek finds he does not mourn as much as would have had only a few days earlier.

And somehow, it seems extremely ironic he is secretly disapproving of Barouhcruz‘ blatant opportunism in allying himself with a man who has murdered his way to the top when Mazuurek himself has agreed to a trade with the one human on Earth with the highest kill count of Vers military leaders. He likes to think that different from Barouhcruz, he is doing it for noble reasons, out of his devotion to the true royal family and noble spirit, and yet, his cooperation had saved his life and freedom, too. There is no move in a war that is not partly driven by opportunism, probably, Mazuurek muses, and the weight in his pocket seems to quadruple with the lies, half-truths and agendas tied to it.

☩☩☩

_„Something else, Sir Knight“, the boy said, and without taking his eyes of the invisible road he was following, he produced a small white leather case from his shirt pocket and held it out to his fellow passenger._   
_„What is that?“, Mazuurek asked and eyed it sceptically. It was too small for a weapon of any kind, but too large for a tracking device or anything of that sort. Despite the kind way boy had treated him, the young soldier was someone who did things solely for a greater goal he had in mind, so it definitely would not be a random gift with no practical use._   
_He heard a muffled „Take it already, will you“ from the backseat, and reluctantly took it from the boy‘s hand, as he would rather not risk the apparently trigger happy girl sitting behind him lose her patience. She definitely had less to spare of it than her taciturn co-conspirator._

_Thankfully, it did not explode or anything of that sort. No matter how he looked at it as he turned it over in his hands, it was an average, if obviously new, not too heavy small case, probably taken from the military supplies and the sort in which medals of honour were usually awarded to soldiers._   
_„I would like to ask you to give this to Princess Asseylum if anyhow possible“, the boy spoke again, and for a second Mazuurek paused, then asked innocently: „Which one?“_   
_The boy flinched ever so slightly and turned his head to look at him._   
_„The real one, and only her.“_   
_„Hmm“, Mazuurek hummed noncommittally and stared at this new addition to his tasks as assigned by his enemy. His thumbs rested beneath the edge, but for some reason, he hesitated in opening it._

_„What is in here?“_   
_„You can open it if you want.“_   
_The boy had unsurprisingly understood the implied request, even though his voice was a bit taut, as if he did not really like giving this permission._   
_„Not that you could stop him from doing it once he‘s out of sight, anyway“, Areash dryly commented, and Mazuurek frowned. He would have liked to insist that if sworn on his honour as an Orbital Knight, he would never have opened it, but in all honesty, in their situation, he was past taking chances._

_„Well, true that“, the boy admitted, tone a lot friendlier, eyes shifting to look in the rear view mirror at his friend, before turning his attention back to Mazuurek._   
_„It is something that belonged to her which got left behind when Slaine Troyard and Count Saazbaum took her back to the orbit.“_   
_„Something belonging to the Princess“, Mazuurek repeated slowly, and opened the lid. Inside, lying on white fake satin, was a metal pendant embedded with blue gemstones forming a cross shape._   
_„I do not recognise this as a Versian design“, he stated, tilting the case slightly to have a closer look in the dim light within the car._

_„It is not“, the boy agreed, looking fixedly in front of himself again._   
_„You‘re not going to tell me more about this, are you“, Mazuurek observed after a few beats of silence with a lopsided smile, and saw how the boy‘s hands tightened ever so slightly around the steering wheel._   
_„It is not bugged or anything of that sort, so no harm will come in you handing it over“, he avoided the question instead, and then continued very quietly: „It is the one proof I have that she was definitely here, on Earth, with us.“_

_„So it is supposed to be proof that your story is true. Makes sense, I guess.“_   
_Mazuurek closed the lid again and stashed the case in the inner pocket of his jacket._   
_„As I said, it is the only tangible memory I have of this time“, the boy spoke again, and there was a new quality to his voice now that for some reason made Mazuurek downright uncomfortable. „I don‘t part with it lightly, please promise me you will not lose it and only hand it over if you are sure the Princess will receive it personally.“_   
_Mazuurek sighed. This day had taken more turns leading into the fields of the absurd than he would ever have expected, and being asked to play carrier pigeon for a necklace was just one more of many._

_„Understood, I will see to it myself. You have given me no reason to doubt you just yet, so trust me that I will keep it safe for the time being, since it is so important to you.“_   
_„Thank you“, the boy simply said, and it sounded so utterly honest that again, Mazuurek had to remind himself that he by any and all right should be constantly suspicious and wary of the other‘s motives. The lines drawn in war became so incredibly blurred once you actually had to interact at the front lines, he thought, and turned his head to look out of the window up to the scattered illuminated fragments of the moon. It had all seemed so much easier from up there._

☩☩☩

Even as he steps past the soldiers bowing to him, Mazuurek still cannot quite believe it had been that easy. The importance of ranks and the virtue of solidarity amongst the Vers military still held some meaning, then, given how he had instantly received permission to land in response to his apparent malfunctioning shuttle. No-one had dared to ask why someone of his status would travel alone in the first place, or how in hell the equipment had managed to break down on the short distance between the Moon Base and Count Troyard‘s Landing Castle, and he is confident that unless he should be unfortunate enough to run into someone in on Troyard‘s schemes, he would be safe for the time being.

Sure enough, the technicians tasked with repairing the shuttle would certainly find the issue quickly, after all he had not done anything fancy and is fully intent on leaving the place as soon as possible, because keeping in mind what happened to people opposing the new Count, he definitely does not want to try him on his home turf. Escaping by the skin of one‘s teeth is not exactly pleasant experience, he now knows first-hand, and here in the orbit, he has no-one to rely on anymore.

At least, he has not yet, he thinks, as he takes a seat in the windowless parlour that seems more akin to a holding cell, the comfortable armchair aside. This entire Castle feels more like a trap with any passing second, and even though it is way too late to back out of his risky undertaking, he cannot help but wonder if he is truly playing the right hand here, hoping to find something that should not exist at all, and be even harder to prove. Impossible, maybe.

He can feel the hard edge of the leather case stashed in his trouser pocket dig into his leg as he shifts in his seat a little, trying to look entirely relaxed and not as if he is currently attempting his best at espionage and martial sabotage. He has one single item that might or might not help him verify the suspicion that has been slowly growing ever since he has heard Kaizuka Inaho‘s statement of utter conviction, and now that he has come this far, there is no turning back, no matter how things would develop from here.

There is the sound of the door opening with a hiss, and Mazuurek rises and settles for a friendly smile. This ground might feel more like enemy territory than Earth did, but he walks it with a bargaining chip of his own, its worth that of destroying a person. In the end, it is just a piece of jewellery, Mazuurek thinks, and it has nothing to do with him, and you do not shoot the messenger, you should shoot the one who orchestrated all of this escalation of slaughter and hatred instead, no matter if they were to be found on Vers‘ or Earth‘s side. And whichever it would turn out to be, he would be there to fight them, too, because remaining impartial is no longer an option. If only the shadow of doubt has the power of toppling over an empire, then the one best at hiding their true colours is only reigning as long as it takes for them to fall.

And falling is inevitable when you were up so high.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still can‘t believe Inaho just handed that thing over hhhh  
> Count Eastercake is a blessing and everything I had hoped Slaine in the first cour to become, only with less shooting people. Now please get back to Earth and save the Deucalion while you‘re at it, thank you.  
> The weight is based on the official replica of the pendant sold as merchandise, by the way.


	11. O(rd)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The hoist rope has not quite reached the floor yet when he hears the shouting from across the docking hall._   
>  _„Good work out there, Kaizuka-ototo!“_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ord : _the class of ordinal numbers_

The hoist rope has not quite reached the floor yet when he hears the shouting from across the docking hall.  
„Good work out there, Kaizuka-ototo!“  
Inaho turns his head slightly, and sure enough, amidst the usual post-battle hustle of technicians, Kataphrakt pilots and soldiers, he spots his former teacher close to his Areion unit, waving at him.  
He gives a short salute in return, careful not to lose balance during his last metres of descent, and is surprised to see Marito actually make his way through the crowd and over to Sleipnir to greet him in person.

„Seriously, you truly helped my platoon out tremendously, thanks for that“, Marito says with a smile once they are on eye-level, or as much as they can be with their height difference, that is. It is still a bit odd to see the other man like this, Inaho thinks to himself, the way he had transformed from someone constantly radiating an attitude of cynicism and nonchalance to the point of not even bothering showing up on time and wearing his uniform properly into a squad leader everyone looked up to, wearing the same green pilot suit as his students.  
„There‘s nothing to thank me for“, Inaho replies instead, smiling back ever so slightly. „I‘m glad your group suffered no losses again this time, and that‘s mainly due to your leadership, Marito-taii.“

Marito crosses his arms and tilts his head to one side.  
„Flattery will get you nowhere, Kaizuka-ototo. You know most of our victories are on you just as well as I do.“  
Inaho feels himself flinch.  
„Please, don‘t say that, Marito-taii.“  
The other blinks, obviously confused.  
„Say what, how bad we‘d be off without your strategies in this war? Are you seriously going to start being bashful about that now?“

Inaho shakes his head.  
„No, I meant to ask if you could maybe stop calling me Kaizuka-ototo, Marito-taii.“  
„Well, you‘re the second Kaizuka I got to know, so I just went with that since plain ‚Kaizuka‘ was already taken“, Marito argues, eyebrows raised.  
„You could just use ranks for both my sister and me“, Inaho drily suggests in turn, while wondering why his sister actually never objected to being addressed so casually by her superior. „We do have different ranks, so it should help avoid confusion.“

Marito exhales audibly, looking as if he does not quite follow.  
„The Captain calls you that as well, so I thought you didn‘t mind.“  
„Well, it‘s not that I _mind_ , exactly“, Inaho argues with a shrug, but for all he usually looks indifferent, there is an almost adorable lack of his utter self-confidence all of a sudden, Marito notes.  
„Does it really bother you that much?“  
When Inaho does not answer immediately, Marito barks out a short laugh.  
„I never thought of you as such a petty person, but I guess in the end you‘re a teenager after all.“  
„It has nothing to do with my age, Marito-taii“, Inaho instantly counters, but even he himself can tell it only ends up sounding sullen.

His former teacher regards him with a smile that somehow manages not to turn out patronising, but instead just kind, with obvious fondness.  
„No-one thinks anything less of you, no matter what they call you, you know, be it your name, rank, unit code, nickname, whatever“, he starts, arms finally unfolding, and Inaho suddenly and unexpectedly feels the unfamiliar weight of a hand on his head as Marito briefly ruffles his hair.  
„Let‘s make it a deal - you keep going as you are right now and you‘ll outrank me in no time. I promise I‘ll always address you properly then, Kaizuka-shoui“, Marito explains, stepping back. „But until then, to me you‘ll remain Kaizuka‘s genius little brother who I can blindly trust to have my back in battle.“

With that, he turns to leave, waving back at Inaho over his shoulder, yelling a last „See you, Kaizuka-ototo“ that is almost lost between the clanging of metal and noise of tools filling the hall. Inaho remains frozen in place for a few seconds, perplexed by the previous unusual display of affection, while realising that ultimately, he had lost at least one battle today. And still, he feels himself unable to keep from smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To quote a certain dear deer, _Marito is a darling_.


	12. MWI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"I didn't expect to meet you here, Kaizuka Inaho."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MWI : _the Many-worlds Interpretation suggests that every possible quantum outcome really exists in worlds parallel to the spectator‘s_

„I didn‘t expect to meet you here, Kaizuka Inaho.“
    
    
    Voice sample of target recorded. Comparing to accessible data base. 99,9% match found. Name: Sl-

„Slaine Troyard.“  
The name rolls easily off his tongue now, long since familiar. It is hard to imagine that once it had just been a name like any other, carelessly dropped by the Princess in some trivial conversation once or twice, some old acquaintance of her‘s he had never cared to know anything more about. He clearly remembers the moment he had first seen him in a pirated Vers broadcast then, clearly and unmistakably, no longer nothing but a pale, blurry figure in the dark fringed by his own tears and blood, but instead a calm and collected young man standing with his head held high next to the Orbital Knight encouraging his soldiers to show no mercy to the Terran enemy. And he clearly recalls the feeling of resignation when it had become undeniable certainty what had only been his guess he believed to be true but secretly wished to be wrong about.

Slaine, the Princess‘ childhood friend; Koumori, the Tanegashima pilot who had saved his life and then taken his eye; and Slaine Troyard, the Knight of Vers and pilot of Tharsis - they were one and the same person.
    
    
    Analysing wound data. Grazing shot. No serious injury sustained. Ammunition used: 9mm full metal jacket bullet. Shooting accuracy: moderate. Threat level: high. Suggested course of action: Retr-

The ricocheting of the bullets from the metal shipping containers reverberates painfully in his head, all but drowning out the mechanical voice that is not really there, not really his, but at the same time it is. Even running through the maze that is this hall, trying to both avoid becoming a target and finding a clear line of fire, from the corner of his eyes he is watching with a mixture of trepidation and awe as Slaine navigates around the low gravity zone with the apparent ease of someone truly accustomed to it, with no clunky space suit hindering his movements.

Inaho knows he is on enemy grounds here, and Slaine holds any and all advantages of knowing the territory to not suffering from impending cerebral overload, and he knows that different from their first encounter, this time he holds no leverage over the other whatsoever.

„Calculate firing point from bullet path. Show thermographic image.“  
If it is enemy territory, you need to make it yours to succeed, and ironically enough, he had been given the tool to do so thanks to the person he is now facing as a lethal opponent once more. _Throw the enemy off, be more inventive and creative than they are, use the environment to your advantage even if or maybe especially if they feel at ease and secure there_ , Inaho runs the strategy in sync with the bionic feed naturally.
    
    
    Nine. Ten. Eleven. Pause in shooting detected. Most likely conclusion: Empty clip. Target is reloading. Estimated time slot for making a retreat: fifteen sec-

„Where is Seylum- Princess Asseylum? Don‘t get her involved in this!“  
There is the throbbing that always comes with blatantly ignoring the analytical engine‘s input, even if it has become worse recently, but Inaho clenches his teeth and ignores it the best he can. He may not have the upper hand this time, maybe he never had, but even if it is a shot in the dark, if he can get the other to hesitate for just one second too much, get him worked up and emotional and miss his mark, then maybe -

„ _‚Don‘t get her involved‘_? The princess exists beside the objective I pursue. That is all.“  
Slaine‘s voice is even and calm, and with Inaho‘s eye busy running the math of saving his life, he is unable to check his voice for markers of lying. The other sounds just as he did on the broadcasts, smooth and without edges, while at the same time sharp enough to promise the immediate demise of whoever opposes him. There is so little of the passionate and considerate person Inaho met back on Tanegashima left in that voice that Inaho has trouble believing what is so obviously true, the pain in his arm and head fuelling his frustration and anger.

„You‘re taking advantage of the Princess?“  
There is a half a breath of silence, the split second of hesitation he had hoped to cause the other, the head start he would need in order to escape this battle that he had neither the strength nor the ability to fight and win in his current state, and Inaho tells himself that the question had only been meant to rile up the enemy, even though he knows he is yearning for the one answer that still could change everything, if only Slaine wanted to. When he answers, it cuts deeper than previous bullet.  
„If so, would that bother you?“
    
    
    Pulse: 121. Overall physical condition: alarming. Direct confrontation with enemy not advisable.

„You were an enemy all along, after all!“  
„If that‘s all you were, there would have been no need to hate you!“

 

\------------------------------------  
_You’re my twin_  
_We'll never come to terms forever_  
\------------------------------------

 

 

„Are you familiar with the concept of multiple universes?“  
„Excuse me?“  
Slaine straightens up from where he had been crouching next to the Sky Carrier in between the variety of toolboxes and borrowed equipment and looks at Inaho with open faced confusion.  
„The theory that every possible outcome of any event does exist in a different reality and universe from ours“, Inaho explains patiently and holds out a towel to the other to wipe the oil off his hands with. Slaine accepts it with a nod, but a frown on his features, still.  
„I‘m aware it is often subject of discussion, yes, even though I have no deeper running knowledge of quantum mechanics“, he replies, looking vaguely uncomfortable upon having to admit to yet another shortcoming in his scientific education. „Why are you asking me about it, though?“

Inaho leans back, his hands resting on the smooth black metal of the Versian aircraft, considering his answer for a second and watching Slaine shut the hatch he had been working on before.  
„I was just thinking that everything might have gone very differently back at Tanegashima“, he finally says, and sees the other freeze in his movements, before turning back towards him with a lopsided smile.  
„You mean, you really, actually would have attempted to kill me back then in another reality?“  
„Wouldn‘t you, too?“, Inaho counters instantly, and the expression on Slaine‘s face is answer enough.

„On-the-spot decisions in war are tough“, Slaine hesitantly begins, glancing around the docking hall that now houses one Sky Carrier amongst the many Terran Kataphraktoi, and taking in the coming and going of the UFE soldiers, some of which still cast surreptitious glances towards their new comrade ever so often.  
There is something in his voice that tells Inaho that he is referring to more than just their chance encounter back then, more than he has told them so far over the course of these past few days of interrogations and informal chats, but he does not ask. He knows the other‘s capabilities and loyalties, his personal traumata are of secondary concern.  
For a mere ally, that is.

„I guess it would have made sense to act that way, in those circumstances“, Slaine continues, and the calmness with which he accepts that the people on who‘s benevolence he is now entirely dependent might just as well have killed him impresses Inaho as much as it frightens him. „I‘m not holding it against you, Kaizuka-san, even if in some other universe you killed me, in this one, you didn‘t, and that‘s what counts, isn‘t it?“  
„That's a very rational way of seeing things“, Inaho comments, and Slaine laughs, a short, breathless laugh only, but for some reason, it sets Inaho more at ease than words ever could.  
„You didn‘t think of me as a very rational person, did you“, Slaine says softly, leaning back against his plane next to Inaho, still absentmindedly wiping his hands. „You‘re not wrong. However, you still let me see the Princess and accepted my wish to fight alongside you to bring down the traitor‘s behind her assassination, and that‘s all that matters.“

As the silence stretches between them, Inaho wonders what to say. He still thinks about it often, about how they should be enemies but are not, about how if only either of them had not waited for only a second more before opening fire they would have mutually destroyed another, but he now knows that whatever he could say, whatever horrible scenario of them hating each other he could come up with, Slaine would not care.

„So even if in another world we are enemies, in this one, we are allies“, he summarises thoughtfully.  
„I do like the sound of that“, Slaine says with a smile, and for all Inaho cares, there should only be one universe allowed to exist, and that is this one.

 

\------------------------------------  
_You better back off now_  
_Don’t wanna fall apart_  
_You know I won’t back down_  
\------------------------------------

 

 

„I didn‘t expect to meet you here, Kaizuka Inaho.“

He sees the other person startle and instantly shift into a defensive position, the reaction just a proof of identity he had not even needed. Slaine knows exactly who that person is, has before he even had gotten a clear look at the scrawny soldier in the outdated Terran space suit. There is probably only one person who is insane enough, or think of themselves as cunning and invincible enough, that depended on the perspective, to infiltrate the enemy base entirely alone, taking other routes than the heavily armed squadrons currently dying in the hallways at the hands of Slaine‘s guard. The UFE‘s plans are as unimaginative as they are logical in a war, and obviously their actual mastermind would have his own agenda, Slaine had anticipated as much.

„Slaine Troyard.“  
Slaine feels the corners of his lips twitch slightly at the greeting that is followed suit by a an exchange of bullets shot with the intent to kill with neither of them missing a beat. Kaizuka does not ask why he knows his name, and Slaine is sure that by now, the other has probably collected every piece of information on him that he had in any way been able to lay hands on. It makes things easier, no more hiding behind the steel and glass of Kataphraktoi, no more makeshift nicknames and half-truths, but an honest duel to the death between two participants who know exactly who they are up against.

For all the grace and speed Kaizuka shows as a pilot, his movements now are hectic and stressed, and Slaine wonders if the other is scared. He remembers the cocky smile right before the final shot back in Saazbaum‘s Landing Castle vividly, burned into his memory forever. There had been no trace of fear or sadness on Kaizuka‘s face, only an expression challenging the intertwining of fate that had made them cross paths again, and seemingly also meant to taunt Slaine as to how he had come too late to still change anything at all. He had remembered Kaizuka Inaho as someone not afraid of death, defiant to the very end, and yet, right now, what he sees is someone desperately trying to survive.

And there is only one possible reason for that, the thought of which alone fuels the calm anger within his chest. Kaizuka Inaho had come to steal back what he had built an empire of lies, murder and treason to protect.

Slaine effortlessly jumps over one of the shipping containers, eyes swiftly scanning the passages beyond for the white figure he is chasing. Everything in this Castle, as short as he may have owned it so far, is his, Slaine thinks, and there would be no escaping for Orange this time, no sky and space to flee to. He is almost physically aware of Tharsis imposing presence at the back of the hall, but this is a score he has to settle face to face, not so much because of Knight‘s honour but because it is up-close and personal, always has been ever since their second encounter.

A bullet hits the metal wall to his left and he swiftly retreats behind the nearest container. He inhales deeply, forcing his breathing to even out and the rushing of blood in his ears to die down, and for a second he thinks he can hear Kaizuka‘s voice, soft and seemingly directed at someone else. If he is about to call back-up, it is best to end it quickly, Slaine decides, reloading his gun and the part of him that is entirely rational and hardened from the two years of living a life based on everything he once despised muses that this time, he should empty the entire clip in Kaizuka‘s head, just to make sure, to make really sure that this person, an enemy, he reminds himself, would never stand in his way again. Another, almost entirely faded part of himself winces at how easy it comes to him to decide on the execution of someone he had once tentatively hoped could become his ally. It is bearable, Slaine tells himself, because he knows Kaizuka is the same and probably preparing to kill him in this moment, too.

„Where is Seylum- Princess Asseylum? Don‘t get her involved in this!“  
Kaizuka‘s voice has a desperate, breathless quality to it that had not even been there when they had faced annihilation at Countess Femianne‘s hands, and for a second Slaine almost wants to ask just what has driven the previously so collected soldier into a corner like that. But they are past that stage, they lost that chance when they had drawn weapons at each other and Slaine had watched the bullet rip through the other‘s face and left him behind to die without even so much as bothering to check whether he truly was dead.  
Instead of giving in into his foolish notion, he echoes the other‘s words, feeling the sarcasm seep through.

„' _Don‘t get her involved_ ‘? The princess exists beside the objective I pursue. That is all.“  
There is no reason whatsoever he has to justify his actions to the person who had caused their situation as it is now, and still Slaine answers, not quite knowing why. He cannot and does not want to tell Kaizuka everything, from his background to the lessons life amongst the people of Vers has taught him in the cruelest ways, and the fact that he has found a chance for peace in this path he is heading down. It does not matter if Kaizuka Inaho does not approve of Slaine‘s plans, just as it does not matter if the Princess does not approve of them, either. He is past needing validation of his actions from people that end up hurting both him and his agenda.

„You‘re taking advantage of the Princess?“  
Kaizuka‘s shout cuts through him like a blade, and for a moment he remembers how it had felt back in that fateful night, when it had been him who had cried the same thing at a nameless, faceless person he had thought to have mutual understanding with. They had needed almost no words during their short cooperation, the Terran soldier relying blindly on his piloting skills the same way Slaine had trusted the other‘s expert marksmanship, but as soon as they had switched to talking, everything had gone so horribly, horribly wrong.  
Slaine unclenches his teeth with effort, swallowing the irony and does not take the bait, instead choosing the response that feels like a poison dart on his tongue.  
„If so, would that bother you?“

„You were an enemy all along, after all!“  
„If that‘s all you were, there would have been no need to hate you!“

 

\------------------------------------  
_A look around_  
_The other me is you_  
\------------------------------------

 

„How is your arm?“  
Inaho looks up from the folder on his knees he had been reading towards the new visitor, and there is neither happiness nor malcontent upon being approached by Slaine visible on his face.  
„Good morning, Slaine“, Inaho says instead of an immediate reply, and removes his jacket from the chair next to him to make room for Slaine to sit down. „It is healing well, though Yagarai-sensei suggests I keep wearing the exoskeleton brace for another two weeks in order to make sure I will not make the damage worse by assuming relieving postures.“

„I see“, Slaine simply states, as he takes his seat, eyes fixed on the quarantine chamber put up in the centre of the dimly lit room, the transparent plastic curtains offering a surrealistic view of machinery and tubes connected to one seemingly so frail person on the one bed in the middle. Princess Asseylum is so pale that she almost blends in with the white blankets, and even though the steady beeping of the control monitors tells him that she is still alive and breathing, he feels his own heart clench at the sight.  
„Her status remains unchanged“, he can hear Inaho explain, flipping through the folder again. „The external wounds appear to heal very fast, however the internal traumata she sustained make it impossible for the doctors to give any prediction when she is going to wake up again.“

Slaine notes that Inaho says _when_ and not _if_ , and for the first time today, he turns to truly look at the other person. Inaho appears to have spent a few nights too many awake, shadows beneath his eyes contrasting the white dressing around his forehead. His left arm limply hanging from his side is still wrapped in bandages from the elbow to the shoulder and locked in the metal construction that ironically enough gives the human pilot a partial resemblance to his Kataphrakt. For all Terrans seem still a bit lagging behind in technological developments, even in the medical field, Slaine has to admit the work on restoring the others shattered arm bones looks exemplary, and this success gives him a small glimmer of hope that they will also be able to nurse the Princess back to full health.

Inaho glances up from the folder and catches him staring.  
„Don‘t worry about my arm, it‘s not really a hindrance, I‘m right handed after all“, he says, voice flat as usual, and Slaine cannot tell for the life of him if it is intended to be humorous or assuring.  
„That is the least of my worries“, he replies, tone a bit bitterer than he intended it to be. „You shouldn‘t worry which arm I shot but rather be glad I didn‘t settle for vital regions instead.“  
Inaho blinks, and then smiles.  
„Oh, but I am.“

Slaine does not know how to respond to it, really, because the whole situation is so warped. It is not as if he had saved the other, or spared him out of mercy and compassion, and not as if Inaho had not tried to kill him as well back then. It had been nothing but a moment‘s decision that he had opted for the hand holding the weapon instead of the person himself, had calculated that the nearest medical facility would be at the Novostalsk base rather than in the orbit, and settled on casting his lot with the UFE.  
And if you intended to show up at a military base in an enemy‘s Kataphrakt in order to plead for help, having just one more bargaining chip as proof of your non-hostile intentions is never a bad idea.

„I‘ve been thinking about it, you know“, Inaho continues, face turned towards the quarantine chamber again, the flickering of the monitors casting an almost eerie glow on his face.  
„About what?“, Slaine prompts, wondering what unexpected train of thought Inaho is about to follow as he usually does.  
„About how differently things might have turned out.“  
„If I had shot you, you mean?“  
It sounds strange to his own ears, casually conversing with someone he neither hates nor can truly forgive for his actions about how he could have ended his life, but did not.

„Yes.“  
Inaho nods, still as calm and friendly in tone as if they are conversing about the weather and not his hypothetical death.  
„Your sister would hate me more than she already does, now“, Slaine says dryly, and Inaho huffs.  
„Not only that, though, I was also thinking about how things would have been different if we had not reached the same impasse back on Tanegashima as well.“  
„Impasse is too weak a word.“  
Slaine still feels the sting of the wounds on his chest and back, daily carefully checked on and bandaged by this ship‘s Terran doctor now, a livelong reminder of just what their failure in communication had brought about back then.

Inaho looks at him again, face unreadable.  
„I can't say I regret making this decision, but trust me that I'm honest when I say I'm truly sorry for what happened to you.“  
Slaine shakes his head.  
„What happened, happened, what use is mulling over how things might have turned out now?“

„Are you familiar with the theory that every possible outcome of any event does exist in a different reality and universe from ours, Slaine?“  
„Another lecture in science from you?“, Slaine sighs, but not actually annoyed. In between interrogations and fighting his misdirected anger towards the other boy, he had gotten quite some insight into his character, and knows that he can be just as straight-forward as he can be round-about in the weirdest ways.  
„Not if you don‘t want to, it‘s a complex subject“, Inaho replies, shrugging his right shoulder a little. „But with all that has happened and how it turned out, I was thinking that in a universe different from ours, maybe we could have been friends from the start.“

„Could we, now“, Slaine muses, and for a while after that, they are sitting in silence, the constant beeping of the machines a reminder of what had connected them from the start, an inseparable bond that in the end had lead them both to this place, each carrying the scars brought about by the other person.  
„Maybe, and maybe we still could.“

 

\------------------------------------  
_You’re better off alone_  
_You better back off now_  
_Never go back again_  
\------------------------------------

 

„I have one final request: Do not kill Slaine Troyard, please, if anyhow possible. Please, Inaho-san, don‘t, I beg you. No matter what he did, he still is-- he still is just like you, so please, spare his life, Inaho-san!“
    
    
    Understood. Message was recorded. Data will be transferred to Kaizuka Inaho upon regaining consciousness.  
    
      
    
    

_\------------------------------------_  
_You better back off now_  
_Before the sky falls down_  
_Turning into dust and fade away_  
_Just can’t seem to get you out of my brain_  
\------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _The Boys of Earth_ Mazuurek said, _Chance Encounter and Separation_ the title said. This is why we can‘t have nice things.  
>  From the beginning on, I knew [this song](https://soundcloud.com/rafael-90/broken-mirror-by-boom-boom) was going to make a guest appearance in this collection sooner or later. Let‘s hope Inaho and Slaine take a page from Banagher‘s and Riddhe‘s book and overcome their issues in order to form a splendid mecha tag team, shall we.


	13. tan (x)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Holding hands had never been something Inaho thought about a lot._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tan (x): _tangent function; derived from Latin 'tangere' meaning 'to touch'_.

Holding hands had never been something Inaho thought about a lot.

Sure, there was the practical purpose to it of making sure someone stayed by your side, and he remembered how Yuki had always made sure to hold on to his hand tightly when they had made their way through the traffic on streets riddled by construction sites, back when they were still children during Earth‘s time of slow healing. It had always been her who extended her hand first, waiting for him to grab it, giving his a short reassuring squeeze and shooting him a small smile.

Sometimes, he had wondered if that was what their parents had done with her, too, when they had still been alive, but he never asked his sister out of fear of hurting her. Their routine had only changed when Inaho had started primary school and they no longer had taken the same route in the mornings. Inaho had not minded much, as even back then he had prided himself of being cautious and mature enough to not cross a street without looking either way first, but sometimes, when they had walked around town in the afternoon doing shopping, he had seen Yuki-nee‘s hand twitch as if she had to fight the urge of reaching out to him. 

Once, she had caught him noticing it, and had laughed it off.  
„I guess you‘re too old now to be dragged around by your older sister like that, aren‘t you, Nao.“  
With a smile, she had shoved her hands into the pockets of her winter coat, and then continued: „The next one you‘ll want to hold hands with certainly will be a pretty girl, I‘m already envious of her.“  
„Don‘t be ridiculous, Yuki-nee“, Inaho had mumbled into his scarf, feeling the tips of his ears colour. 

Much to his sister‘s dismay, he had not upon entering high school immediately won over the hearts of all girls, as much as Yuki insisted that by all rights, he should have. It was not as if Inaho had really minded, he had been happy just getting along with his classmates, no matter if male of female, and getting good results in tests both on paper and on piloting exams. In between studying, hanging out with his friends and helping with the household chores, there probably was not that much room for holding hands with a hypothetical girlfriend in the first place, he had decided, and life had gone on the way it had always been.

 

\-----

 

The next time he truly holds someone‘s hand, feeling the brush of fingers against his palm, is when he cannot do anything, anything at all as Okisuke slowly slips out of his grasp, the tendons in Inaho‘s hand already screaming in pain at not being able to sustain the weight and pull, and then suddenly, there is nothing but empty airspace he is grasping at. 

And for the first time, he can feel the horrible sensation that follows letting go of someone you wish to hold on more than anything, lingering as a physical echo for hours after the incident, still.

 

\-------

 

The middle of a war was not a very good point in time to wonder again about a hypothetical girlfriend and holding hands with her, especially not if the person you could not help but feel drawn to just so happened to be a member of the enemy‘s royalty.

Touching Her Highness probably was a grave offence in general, by the way her handmaiden acted, but in between Seylum-san trying to maintain some cover as an innocent civilian and being genuinely nice and approachable without putting on airs, she probably was not the type to strictly adhere to protocol in any and all situations.

Of course, Inaho would never act on such a foolish impulse unneeded, after all, there were way more important things he had to focus on - battle strategies, collecting data on the enemy, and ensuring the survival of as many precious people as possible, first and foremost.

Still, sometimes when he was watching her from the corner of his eyes, the way she radiantly lit up the entire place with her honest feelings and good hearted nature, he remembered what his sister had told him about wanting to hold hands with someone, and he wondered if that was the type of feelings he had for Asseylum Vers Allusia. There would be no future for them after the war had ended, no matter how much she might wish for them to remain friends, and he knew it, but still, the selfish desire remained, and he noticed with a frown how this time, it was his hand he felt twitch in the desire to reach out.

 

\-------

 

In the end, it is her who reaches out to him first, even though he can barely feel her touch through the gloves and with his fingers numb from pain and cold, and yet, he knows she is there, wishing to hold on to him the way he wishes to hold on to her, and then suddenly, in a cruel déjà-vu, he feels her sliding out of his grasp, without being able to understand why until the reverberating echo of the gunshots registers in his mind. 

He does not even have the strength left in his hand to try to hold her until the last second, and the sensation of emptiness filling him is slower this time, detached from the reality he cannot begin to accept as he feels blood that is not his drip on his face.

 

\-----

 

„Force feed back-checking programme: Start.“ 

His fingers automatically press the sequence of buttons to start up the Asimov programme, the movement as natural to him as writing his name or tying his cravat. There is only one thing different this time, following up this step in his preparation ritual, and that is the lucky charm pinned to the dashboard. The treasured note that Yuki had given him for his first combat training had irretrievably been lost at Novostalsk, buried somewhere beneath metal and snow, and now he reaches out to hold something different in his hands.

He cannot feel it with the thick material of the space suit in the way, but he had taken in this last farewell gift of Asseylum earlier in a quiet moment, the smooth surface of the pearls and the cold weight of the precious stones. The necklace is a more solid weight, even without the words of encouragement, and as he starts up Sleipnir to set out to what he knows will be his last battle, one way or the other, he notices his own hand tighten around the necklace and the controller more viciously than necessary.

He had not been conscious when she had passed it on to him, only received a recap of the events from the analytical engine, just one more reminder that the things he wished to hold the closest to his heart kept on slipping through his fingers like quicksand.

But this time, he is determined to hold on to everything, be it at the cost of his life if it has to.

His family, his friends, his newfound allies on the other side of the battle lines. 

The Princess, for whatever future is awaiting them once everything is over.

And the one person the Princess‘ final request has been dedicated to, the one that had gotten away four times yet, and the one Inaho knows in one way or the other will seal his fate.

Maybe it is greedy to wish to hold on to everything, friend and foe alike, enemies of yesterday and friends of tomorrow, but Inaho does not care, as long as never again he will bear that feeling of someone slipping past his grip.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so worried about everyone ahahahaha (T‿T)/


	14. q. e. e.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _That hopeless man would not recognise an invitation to a date if it came formally written on a card._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> q. e. e. : _quot erat expectandum (what was to be expected)_

„Oh, how unusual to meet you here of all places, Lieutenant!“  
Marito looked up from the mission report he had been tasked by Captain Magbaredge to proofread as leader of the main platoon which had been involved, and saw Yagarai enter the bridge with a broad smile.  
„Likewise, what brought you out here, so far from your medical bay?“  
„I need your signature for the list of medical supplies we need to restock on here“, the doctor turned to the Captain, who immediately accepted the papers and skimmed over the items.  
„It includes some special equipment I‘ll need in order to conduct maintenance on Ensign Kaizuka‘s eye“, Yagarai explained, before laughing to himself: „Even though he assured me he can do that all by himself, I thought I should still have it at hand, just in case.“ 

„Agreed“, Magbaredge said, signing before even having finished reading all of it. „I trust your verdict entirely, and am glad we have you on board again with us.“  
„The pleasure is all mine“, Yagarai beamed, and Marito huffed.  
„For all you know, Captain, you could just have signed him ordering a live elephant.“  
„Compared to certain other people, Doctor Yagarai is entirely reliable, so I sincerely doubt that“, Magbaredge retaliated, handing the clipboard back to the person in question.  
„I couldn‘t fit an elephant into my office, so as fun as it would undoubtably be, I probably would never have had the idea.“ 

Yagarai made a show of thoughtfully rubbing his chin while pondering over the acquisition of elephants, before walking over to where Marito was lolling against one of the airborne computers, leaning in to get a glimpse at what his friend was reading.  
„Is that the report for the mission where you got those bruises on your left shoulder?“  
„That one exactly“, Marito agreed, flipping on to the next page. For all that the missions were pure adrenaline while you were on the battlefield, reading about them in protocol style was about the least exciting thing to do, which probably was why Magbaredge made him do it literally under her watch lest he might slack off on it. 

„The most important thing is that we all made it out alive, though, so that was a small price to pay, right?“  
„Right“, Yagarai echoed, sounding not entirely convinced.  
„Though I would prefer you coming home from battle entirely unharmed next time. Speaking of which“, he continued, straightening his back again and smiling, „before we have to leave on mission to space or halfway across the globe again, we should probably take advantage of the bar in town, as a change from military environment, that is. Do you care to join me?“  
Marito felt his own expression mirror that of the other man.  
„Sure, let me just finish this and then drop by the hangar again to see how far they are with my Areion‘s overhaul.“

„Of course, take your time, Lieutenant.“  
Yagarai smiled and nodded at the Captain and her XO before leaving the bridge. Marito turned back to the report he still had to finish reading, content in knowing there would be at least something to look forward to after work, when he got interrupted again only half a minute later, this time by Magbaredge‘s voice.

„Lieutenant Marito, do you want to know why you‘ll never get a date?“  
Marito lifted his eyes from the paper, looking at the woman with a scowl.  
„You know, I‘ve actually always wondered about that, but since Mizusaki never complained, I thought maybe it was just a habit you both agreed on, but isn‘t that whole you‘ll-never-get-a-date thing bordering on sexual harassment? As in, sexual harassment explicitly prohibited by paragraph somethingsomething in the military guidelines?“

„It‘s paragraph one-hundred twenty-thr-“, Mizusaki helpfully began supplying from the left, but was cut short by her Captain, who huffed and rested her head on her right hand, elbow propped up on her seat‘s armrest. She did look quite regal and imposing on her elevated commanding chair beneath the shining brass plate spelling out the name of this battleship she had so easily made hers, and it was not only because she was literally above him that somehow he felt as if he was being looked down at, even though not entirely unkindly.

„Don‘t make yourself look more of an idiot that you already do in general, Lieutenant Marito.“  
Marito simply shrugged, because on the long list of insults and slander he had gone through in his life, Darzana Magbaredge‘s were far from the worst, and she had proven to still have his back no matter what she might say once the immediate danger had passed.  
„I always thought it was because there‘s a total of zero candidates interested in going on a date with me“, he answered lightly with a lopsided smile, and from the front of the bridge he could hear Tsumugi hiss under his breath at Matsuribi to stop giggling to himself and have some decency or so help him, while Kakei seemed to have succumbed to a sudden violent coughing fit.

„You‘re an absolutely unbelievable person“, Magbaredge sighed, closing her eyes as if struggling with a sudden headache, and Marito wondered what exactly he had done this time to offend her. In general, his constant self-depreciation and cynicism was widely accepted as a fixed character trait of his, and people either ignored it or tried to answer in humour rather than bewilderment.  
„Don‘t mind her, Lieutenant Marito“, Mizusaki chimed in with an apologetic smile, even though she as well had a facial expression to go with it that he could not quite make sense of.  
More and more getting the feeling that there was some sort of vital clue he was missing, he decided to simply turn his focus back on the reports. If it had been something truly important, they would try talking to him about it again, and if not, he could live with not ever knowing why Magbaredge had decided on picking on him this time.

„As far as I‘m concerned, everything in here is alright“, he gave as his final verdict once he had finished reading through the papers and signed it, handing the folder to Mizusaki. „You can forward it to the HQ. If that‘s all, I‘m off for the day.“  
Magbaredge did not answer, still apparently battling with some sort of migraine, but as he had already walked down the hallway quite a few steps, he could hear her voice again, words apparently directed at her second in command and not meant for his ears.  
„That hopeless man would not recognise an invitation to a date if it came formally written on a card, would he?“  
„I believe so, Ma‘am.“

 

\----

 

„Say, Sensei“, Marito began thoughtfully, tilting the bottle of alcohol-free beer in his hand.  
„Hm?“, Yagarai hummed, mid-taking a sip from the glass of water he had ordered probably out of sympathy for his teetotaling friend.  
„What exactly would you define a date as?“  
Marito turned his head in alarm when as a response, he got sudden choking sounds from his right side and hurried to awkwardly pat his friend‘s back as Yagarai coughed up water, accompanied by what sounded suspiciously like laughter. From the corner of his eyes, Marito noticed a few heads briefly turning to where they were sitting in one of the dimly lit corners of the room. 

„You must excuse me, Lieutenant“, Yagarai finally wheezed, voice rough with laughter and coughing, and there were actual tears in his eyes, from which of the two, Marito could not say for sure, „but that was a kind of question I just really wasn‘t expecting to come from you.“  
„I‘m not sure if I should be offended at that“, Marito commented dryly, watching as the doctor took off his glasses to wipe off the water droplets with the hem of his pullover.  
„I didn‘t mean it to be offensive, I assure you“, he replied, putting on his glasses again and shooting Marito a warm smile, „you just don‘t seem to be the kind of person to me who would care about other people‘s definitions much, but rather just do things as you see them fit.“

„Do I, now“, Marito drawled, leaning back in his chair and tilting his head to stare up at the dark wood ceiling.  
„I think the general definition would be two people who are romantically or sexually interested in each other spending time together somewhere outside their normal daily routines, mostly to get to know another, or to escape everyday life a little“, he heard Yagarai say in that certain voice that Marito had dubbed the other‘s medical treatment tone.

„Romantically or sexually interested“, Marito repeated, turning his head back towards his friend who was watching him with raised eyebrows. „Yeah, no.“  
„‚ _Yeah, no_ ‘, what?“  
„The Captain had something to say on that matter to me today, it seems.“  
Marito shrugged, amused at how entirely perplexed Yagarai looked.  
„You mean Captain Magbaredge asked you out on a date?“  
„Of course not!“ Marito burst out a bit too loud, again a few heads turning into their direction as a result. 

„Of course not“, he repeated more softly, „she said something along the lines that I wouldn‘t know an invitation to a date if it sprang me in the face, but I really can‘t see what would possess anyone to want to go out with me.“  
„You mean apart from the fact that you are a good-looking, compassionate and intelligent man and also an excellent military leader?“  
„Thank you for the flowers.“  
Marito grinned and took a sip from his bottle, but stopped short when he noticed Yagarai‘s expression. 

„I‘m absolutely serious“, he said calmly, for once without any hint of a smile on his face. „When you‘re not busy trying to shock people with your cynicism, you are quite the charming man, Lieutenant.“  
Marito stared at his friend completely caught of guard, but there was no indication visible whatsoever that it was supposed to be a joke.

And then, he remembered Magbaredge‘s words.  
 _That hopeless man would not recognise an invitation to a date if it came formally written on a card._  
„Sensei“, he started, slowly, „What we are doing here, could that be defined as a date by general definitions?“  
„The question is what you would like it to be, not what general definitions might say“, Yagarai evaded the question gracefully with a smile. 

Marito just continued to look at the other in complete bewilderment, trying to digest this new piece of information. It was not as if he was shocked or appalled, he realised, but only it had come so unexpected to him that Yagarai might truly like him, more than just as a casual colleague, that he had problems processing the thought. It was no secret that all of the female medical staff had a soft spot for the young doctor, yet always ran against a wall of friendly being turned down time and time again.  
Yagarai was popular, pretty, and kind, and for him to pick Marito of all people to turn his affection towards, an older shell-shocked useless veteran instead of a pretty young nurse or something, was more than he could actually believe. 

„That was unexpected“, he finally stated, taking a sip from his bottle, and Yagarai laughed, and just like that, any possible awkwardness of the situation dissolved.  
„I didn‘t want to spook you.“  
„No, it‘s fine“, Marito said, shaking his head, „I think most of all I don‘t want to lose what we have now.“  
„Nothing has to change, Lieutenant, it‘s just a word, nothing more.“  
His voice was gentle, and Marito reminded himself that if it was this person, there was nothing he had to fear. Yagarai knew just about everything about him, the ugly sides and the ones he apparently considered worthwhile, and if there was anyone Marito thoroughly trusted, it was him.

„Let‘s go with the commonly accepted definition, then, and call this here a date“, he decided.  
„That makes about two-hundred-seventy casual meetings and one date“, Yagarai counted, and this time, it was Marito who laughed.  
„I‘m already looking forward to the next one, then, Sensei.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know most of you are here because you‘re interested in fics revolving around Slaine and/or Inaho, but I just can‘t understand there are people who look at these two here and not immediately shout _OTP: Married With Two ~~Crazy~~ Kids_. Seriously, from all shippy routes the series could have taken from episode one on for Marito, be it with Yuki who was the only one to still admire him, or be it Magbaredge for Humeray-issues, they decided to instead keep all of that on friendship basis and go for the doctor instead. What a time to be alive.


	15. Graveyard Orbit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _„So you think I‘m being rightfully punished.“_   
>  _„Yes.“_   
>  _Slaine smiles, and it is equal parts bitter and amused._   
>  _„You really hold nothing back, do you, Kaizuka Inaho.“_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Graveyard Orbit: _supersynchronous orbit in which broken spacecrafts are purposefully stranded after the end of their operational life to lower the possibilities of collisions in the future_

„Maybe it was Nemesis.“  
Slaine looks up, the piece in his hand still hovering a few centimetres from the board.  
„Who?“  
„The goddess of rightful wrath and destiny“, Inaho explains, „who punishes humans for their hubris.“  
Slaine‘s eyes narrow, and he retracts the pawn to its original position and crosses his arms as if to underline having no intention to continue their game which had begun in silence. 

„So you think I‘m being rightfully punished.“  
„Yes.“  
Slaine smiles, and it is equal parts bitter and amused.  
„You really hold nothing back, do you, Kaizuka Inaho.“  
„You had the hubris of daring to think you could conquer all of Earth while ignoring the Princess‘ wish, and now you‘re facing the consequences“, Inaho continues in a calm tone, but Slaine just turns his head, staring at no point in particular on the dark walls instead of answering. 

„Just as I paid the price for being arrogant enough to think my decisions in battle were paramount.“  
At this, Slaine‘s eyes turn back to meet his, focussed on the mismatched pair of brown iris and black leather.  
„And eye against a life in prison, which is more cruel a price to pay, I wonder?“  
„We all made sacrifices“, Inaho says quietly, his gaze falling on the neat row of white figures on his side of the board, only disrupted by the three pieces missing he had moved so far. Neither of them had captured any of the opponents pieces yet, and Inaho cannot predict for sure if they are even going to finish the game. It would be a first, as during all his previous visits to the other man, he had either refused playing, stopped mid-way, or Inaho himself had gotten up to leave.

Talking to Slaine on eye level is a weird experience. His words can burn in the invisible but still open wounds Inaho carries like acid, even though they are hardly ever angry in tone, as instead Slaine maintains polite language throughout. During some visits, he does not talk at all. He never lashes out physically, instead seemingly grateful for the table separating them and taking great care not to touch Inaho by accident when moving a piece on the board.  
Even if Koumori now has a face and a name, and Inaho knows everything the official file has on him, from his childhood on Earth to the accounts on his life on Vers, he is as hard to read as ever.

„I‘ve only ever heard the term to refer to an archenemy.“  
Slaine‘s words tear him from his thoughts, and looking up, he notices the board has changed.  
„I don‘t believe in the existence of one archenemy. Wars are not caused by one personal rivalry but by economic or political clashes of interest, and everyone on the opposing side is an enemy of circumstance, that is all. Bishop to a4.“  
„You‘re retreating“, Slaine observes, moving just as quickly, „Knight to f6. So you consider the idea of an archenemy just one more outdated Versian notion, then?“

„I consider it not holding up to the test of reality. You were a worthy opponent I took many tries to defeat, but I don‘t hate you and don‘t consider you my nemesis. King to e2.“  
Slaine takes his time moving on, and Inaho already thinks that once more, they would part ways without ending what they started. Coming to the secret facility they kept the man who had become the scapegoat of the war and officially been labeled _Killed in Action_ takes a lot of time, and again and again people question him why he does it in the first place. Each time, Inaho finds he gives a different answer.

_Because I want to make sure he has no more influence on the outside world that could endanger the Princess._

_Because I hope to gain more intel on the power structure of the remaining Orbital Knights._

_Because I made the call to keep him alive and am responsible for the way he is now._

_Because I want to learn why he did what he did._

_Because I want to understand him._

„I did“, Slaine finally says, his voice just the slightest bit rough around the edges. „Hate you, I mean, with all of my being. It was what kept me alive, the burning desire to at least drag you down with me before everything falls apart. Pawn to b5.“  
„Bishop to b3. Do you hate me, still?“  
„You‘re retreating again.“  
Slaine leans back in his chair, tilting his head slightly to the side with a taunting smile. The tips of his hair have grown long enough to brush his shoulders, and Inaho‘s eye is immediately drawn to the silver gleam of the necklace that disappears beneath the light blue of the other‘s prison uniform.

„You play a solid defence“, he says slowly, looking up again to realise Slaine has been watching him closely, face completely unreadable.  
„They say the best form of defence is attack, don‘t they? Bishop, e7.“  
Seeing how Slaine makes no attempt at letting the action follow his words, Inaho leans across the board to place the black piece accordingly, before immediately making his counter move.  
„Pawn to c3.“

Slaine‘s reaction is swift this time, and Inaho feels his lips curl into an appreciative smile.  
„Castling, an excellent move. You clearly know what you are doing.“  
As he makes his own move, Slaine actually lets out a short laugh, more a derisive huff of breath, really.  
„You like it enough to copy it, apparently. You seem to do that a lot, throw my attacks right back at me.“  
There is no edge to his voice, nor is it truly bitter, and he is still smiling when he moves his next piece.  
„Pawn to d5.“ 

„There is no more need for me to do that outside chess“, Inaho disagrees, furrowing his brow while studying the board. Blind chess with Captain Magbaredge had been difficult, but Slaine plays a whole different level of unpredictable. „Pawn takes pawn, d5.“  
„Knight takes pawn, d5. Because I‘m a dead man to the outside world and my only battles are against you, right. You should have left me up there to burn to ashes or orbit Earth trapped between both worlds forever, it would have made no difference.“  
„I told you I could not do that, Slaine. Knight takes pawn, e5.“

Slaine shakes his head and moves his piece wordlessly.  
„Queen to e4“, Inaho retaliates, mentally listing the possible routes of attack Slaine could choose to take and calculating the probability, now completely left to his own devices with the analytical engine gone. He hardly misses its presence, but when he is with Slaine he realises just how hard it is to truly guess at someone else‘s thoughts with just human intuition. And again, the other catches him off guard with his actions the next moment.  
„I can‘t make myself hate you." 

The words are followed by silence, as Inaho stares at Slaine in surprise, but the other has buried his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes. The wardens report that Slaine Troyard is an exemplary prisoner, there are no violent fits, outbursts or suicide attempts to deal with and he addresses his jailers just as politely as he does everyone else. Their only repeated concern is that seemingly, he has trouble sleeping and eats less than they calculate he should as a young man not even past his teens.

Inaho tries to come up with an answer, but he is lost at what to say. _I‘m glad to hear that_ or _It makes no difference if you hate me or not_ or _You‘re lying_ struggle in his mind for the upper hand, and he wonders that if he had still the help of the A. I. at his disposal, he would have been able to decipher the tone of Slaine‘s voice.  
When he fails to respond, Slaine sighs softly, brushing his hair back from his eyes and turning his attention back to the board.  
„Knight takes knight, e5.“

„Queen to a8“, Inaho counters automatically.  
„Queen to d3.“  
„Bishop to d1.“  
„Bishop to h3. And again, you‘re retreating, Orenji-iro.“  
„And here I thought you said you hated that colour“, Inaho taunts, eyebrows raised, while feeling the sudden surge of adrenaline as he takes in the situation on the board between them. Looking back, he cannot even say where he slipped up so badly, but the way things are now is more than dire. „Queen takes pawn, a6.“ 

„I hate the orange Kataphrakt that got in my way one time too many“, Slaine retorts, and that half-smile is back on his face. „I suppose the pilot behind it is just another person that got swept up in the chaos of war when everything is said and done. Bishop takes pawn, g2. Your move, Kaizuka Inaho.“  
Inaho stares at the board again, then looks back up to Slaine.  
„I surrender“, he then announces, and gently lays down the king on the board. „That was a splendid game, you have my sincere respect.“

Slaine‘s next move is as unexpected as it is deliberate and slow, and for a second, Inaho cannot even comprehend as he looks at the hand that is extended to him above the scene of the bloodless battle he had so utterly lost.  
„You are a great opponent, the sentiment is mutual“, Slaine says, and his voice is as firm and self-assured as the grip of his hand as Inaho reaches out to shake it.  
It is the first time they touch in person, he thinks to himself, and catches himself smiling as he rises to his feet, only letting go when Slaine does not move in sync, instead staying seated and watching his adversary calmly.

„I don‘t think of you as my friend or saviour“, he says, and this time, Inaho is sure there is no waves indicating a lie in Slaine‘s voice, „but I do respect you and can understand why you did what you did. Just a former enemy in a war that is now over, not a nemesis.“  
„Who knows“, Inaho replies, buttoning up his uniform jacket and giving a short hand signal in direction of the soldier who had waited at the door of the outer room, „maybe one day when Vers and the UFE have settled all of their differences, you‘ll be able to see us as allies.“

Slaine remains silent, picking up Inaho‘s fallen king and putting it back on the board in its rightful place, followed by the other pieces.  
When the warden already opens the door, Inaho turns back to look over his right shoulder a last time.  
„Until next time, Koumori.“  
Slaine finishes by repositioning the black queen and lifts his head to give Inaho what he believes to be a genuine smile.  
„I‘m looking forward to it, Orenji-iro.“

>  
> 
> _I realise what I am fighting for._     //  _Will we oversee the smile of love and peace for everyone?_
> 
> _Until the end, I live inside of you._   //   _Now, you save me from oblivion._
> 
> _Who‘s going to take you home?_     //   _I will be there for you, and please wait for me._

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I know nothing about chess. The game referenced here is [Rösch vs. Schlage](http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1254321) which also was the game used in _2001: A Space Odyssey_. The lyrics at the end are part _[Broken Mirror](https://soundcloud.com/rafael-90/broken-mirror-by-boom-boom)_ and part _[Keep On Keeping On](https://soundcloud.com/patawee-kaewvilai/keep-on-keeping-on)_ for obvious reasons.
> 
> That said, I can't believe it's over - I loved the ending, and still, it's hard to really accept that the journey ends here. Thank you all so much for being part of it! Final A/N [here](http://regnumcaelorum.tumblr.com/post/114898247813/t-minus-seven-parting-words).

**Author's Note:**

>  ~~It's been three years since graduation and I don't remember anything about stochastics, I'm very sorry, A-sensei.~~  
> [This](http://a0ikit0iki.tumblr.com/post/106140913967) illustration by Shimura-sensei and its caption suggest that Inaho tends to lose at Rock-Paper-Scissors (and additionally takes bets very seriously), something that I could not just ignore. And who doesn't love Nao-kun's science excursuses?


End file.
